Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: AD Talks March Madness and APR
3/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
March 1, 2005
Big Ten Championships
The winter sports season is coming to an end, and our teams have either just competed in the Big Ten Championships or are gearing up for these exciting season-ending events. These championships provide a great opportunity for our student-athletes and teams to showcase their talents. It also prepares them well for NCAA Championships.
Our men's swimming team had a tremendous performance at the Big Ten Championships this past weekend in Minneapolis. We won seven events at the Championships, the most of any school, in finishing fourth overall. Six of our swimmers earned first-team All-Big Ten accolades, again the most of any school. Sophomore Matt Grevers was named Swimmer of the Championships (for the second consecutive year) after earning five titles and two second-place finishes, while setting three Big Ten records. Kyle Bubolz earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors (which Grevers won last year). He won four Big Ten titles and set one Big Ten record. Head Coach Bob Groseth was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Congratulations to Bob and his swimmers for these well-deserved awards, and best of luck at the NCAA Championships. We finished 11th in the NCAAs last year and are hopeful that we can improve upon that finish this year.
As we head into March -- and March Madness -- it's time for the Big Ten Basketball Tournaments. The women's tournament starts this weekend in Indianapolis at Conseco Fieldhouse. Indianapolis has been a great host for the women's tournament over the past 10 years. Conseco Fieldhouse is not available on Saturday, though (because the Indiana state high school girls basketball tournament is held at Conseco then), and this hurts attendance, since Saturday is traditionally the best day for attendance at a tournament. For this reason, the Big Ten athletic directors are considering whether to change the venue and format of the tournament in the future. Our women's team is seeded 10th and plays Illinois at 4:30 p.m. CT on Thursday.
The men's tournament will be held in Chicago this year. The tournament rotates annually between Indianapolis and Chicago. Both are great locations for the tournament, but I think the fact that we rotate does hurt us in terms building a fan base. With the great success the Illinois' men's team is enjoying, the tournament is already close to a sellout -- only standing room-only tickets remain. It should be an exciting tournament. Our men's team will play its first game Thursday, March 10. Conference play in the last week of the season will determine where we are seeded. Please check our website for information on when we will play. We are hosting a pep rally on Wednesday, March 9 at 6 p.m. at the Fairmont Hotel.
Academic Progress Rate
Three years ago, as part of its academic reform package, the NCAA formed a committee to establish incentives and disincentives to help NCAA institutions and teams improve the academic performance of their student-athletes. For a number of years, the NCAA has used graduation rate information to track the success that schools have had in graduating student-athletes. Under the graduation rate formula, schools have six years in which to graduate their student-athletes. I think the publication of this information has been very helpful. Schools and teams with low graduation rates (some schools have had graduation rates for teams of 0%) faced negative publicity and have been pressured into making changes to increase their graduation rates. Conversely, schools with high graduation rates received very favorable publicity, and awards have been established to recognize schools and teams with high graduation rates. Our graduation rates have consistently been around 90% (the same as the graduation rate for the overall student body) and we have typically been among the top schools in the NCAA in terms of the graduation rate of our student-athletes. Our football team has been honored twice in the last three years for having the highest graduation rate in Division I-A.
While publication of the graduation rate information has been helpful, it is a snapshot and doesn't provide a full picture of how schools and teams are performing academically. In order to provide a measure of "real-time" academic performance, the NCAA committee established the Academic Progress Rate (APR). The APR measures how schools and teams are performing in terms of keeping student-athletes academically eligible and retaining them. Each student athlete can earn two points for each term -- one for remaining eligible and one for staying in school. The NCAA calculates the total number of points that each team can earn for the year, the percentage of the total that the team earned and then multiplies this times 1,000 (e.g., .98 becomes 980). So, a 1,000 would be a perfect score. The NCAA released this information for every NCAA Division institution on Feb. 28. Our overall APR was 980 -- the highest in the Big Ten, and among the highest in the country. Interestingly, we initially earned a 987, but it was adjusted down because we are on the quarter system (since our student-athletes have more opportunities to become eligible than those on a semester system). Like the graduation rate information, the hope is that the publication of this information provides negative publicity for schools with low APRs. In addition, starting next year, teams with APRs below 925 (which correlates to approximately a 50% graduation rate) will not be allowed to replace the scholarship of a student-athlete who leaves school and would have been ineligible. Also, starting in 2007-08, there will be historically based penalties for schools that continually have poor APRs. These penalties will be more severe, and include limiting access to NCAA Championships.
I applaud the NCAA for taking these steps to help improve the academic performance of student athletes. We are doing a great disservice to our student athletes if we don't insist that they receive a quality education. During my years in the NFL and the NFL Players Association, I saw first-hand many individuals who attended four years of college, but were not prepared to do anything but play football. Schools that don't care about the education of their student-athletes should be penalized, and the changes that the NCAA has instituted will help student-athletes and school like Northwestern that are serious about the education of their student-athletes.
