Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Receives 19 NCAA Public Recognition Awards, Second-Most in Nation
5/20/2015 11:33:00 AM | General
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Nineteen of Bucknell's 27 varsity athletics programs received 2015 Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition Awards, the NCAA announced today. That is the second-highest total in the nation, trailing only Dartmouth's 26 recipients. Stanford and Brown joined Bucknell with 19. Bucknell has ranked among the national leaders in Public Recognition Awards in all 10 years since the NCAA began honoring programs that fall in the top 10 percent in APR scores within their respective sports.
According to the NCAA, the APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards this year posted APR scores ranging from 980 to a perfect 1,000.
Specific multi-year APR scores for all Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving Public Recognition Awards, will be announced on May 27.
Bucknell has earned at least 16 Public Recognition Awards every year so far. The previous high was 21, set one year ago. Bison programs honored this year are: baseball, men's basketball, men's and women's cross country, field hockey, women's golf, men's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, women's swimming and diving, women's tennis, men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's outdoor track and field, volleyball and men's and women's water polo.
There are 129 programs in the entire country that have earned an APR Public Recognition Award in each of the 10 years since the program was initiated. Five of those 129 are Bucknell teams, including men's cross country, women's tennis, women's golf, women's soccer and women's indoor track and field.
This year a total of 1,124 Division I programs received Public Recognition Awards, including 696 women's teams and 428 men's or mixed squads. A total of 289 institutions, out of 346 Division I colleges and universities, placed at least one team on the top APR list.
As a conference, the Patriot League received a total of 105 Public Recognition Awards this year. That is the second-highest total in the nation, behind only the Ivy League with 110. The Atlantic Coast Conference was third with 82.
This recognition represents a continuation of widespread national acknowledgement of Bucknell's scholar-athlete success. Bucknell annually ranks among the national leaders in graduation rates – including a No. 2 national ranking in the latest NCAA survey last fall and a No. 1 ranking the year before -- and the Bison rank fifth nationally among all Division I programs in total number of Academic All-Americans.
Under the APR system, a student-athlete can be awarded two points per semester -- one for remaining academically eligible throughout the semester and another for being retained for the next term. Team percentages are then calculated to determine its APR. The upcoming APR report will represent a four-year average based on institutional reporting for the 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years. Teams that do not meet a baseline score of 925 could face sanctions such as loss of scholarships.
In last year's APR report, every Bison program received a score of at least 943, and 19 programs had a cumulative 1,000 score.
Bucknell is a highly-selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Boston University, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola Maryland and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 18 of 25 years.
