May 6, 2009

BERKELEY - Each of the University of California's 25 NCAA-sponsored athletic programs exceeded the required minimum score on the 2007-08 Academic Progress Rate (APR) report announced Wednesday, with 18 sports showing gains from last year's figures.

The APR was developed by the NCAA to gauge schools' academic accountability and provides a "real-time" snapshot of academic success each semester by looking at the current progress of every student-athlete. Now in its fifth year, the APR measures the eligibility, retention and graduation of student-athletes competing on each team, in addition to serving as a predictor of graduation success.

To earn a satisfactory grade, teams must have an APR of at least 925 on a scale of 1-1000, and teams that score below 925 can be subject to loss of scholarships. The scores are based on a multi-year rate that averages scores from the past four full academic years.

Women's soccer received special recognition for its academic performance after placing among the top 10 percent in its sport with a score of 995. Others scoring 990 or higher were women's rowing (995), lacrosse (994) and volleyball (990).

Of Cal's 18 programs that improved from 2006-07, 10 teams had their averages jump at least five points. Men's cross country had the largest increase, going up 21 points to 968, while women's golf went up 15 points and men's tennis up 11.

Football, whose score rose three points to 970, ranked in the 80th to 90th percentile, meaning its score was higher than at least 80 percent of other teams in the sport. It also had the second-highest APR among Pac-10 schools.

More information on APR scores can be found on the NCAA website, ncaa.org, while Cal's report is listed here.