San Jose State Responds To NCAA APR Report

To The Loyal Supporters Of <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Sparta<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

Today you will read that San JoseState has been assessed an APR (Academic Progress Rate) historical penalty by the NCAA. During the last few months, President Don W. Kassing, Director of Athletics Thomas Bowen, Football Coach Dick Tomey, Faculty Athletics Representative Bill Campsey and others have worked tirelessly to appeal the NCAA’s decision.

The NCAA has elected to deny the appeal.

The current assessed penalty is based on the NCAA’s four-year rolling average of the institutions APR. For San JoseState, this includes the 2003-04 and 2004-05 years prior to the arrival of Bowen, Tomey and the promotion of Don Kassing to President. Many of the support systems that are now in place, such as the academics / student success services unit, did not exist as a resource for our student-athletes in the 03-04 and 04-05 periods.  With the hiring of Bowen and Tomey, and with the considerable support and direction of President Kassing, the academics / student success services department was formed and began operation in March, 2005. It now features four full-time professionals dedicated to enhancing the academic achievement of our student-athletes in all sports.

During the NCAA’s four-year rolling average, the football program is penalized for 58 0-for-2’ student-athletes. This means 58 football student-athletes began their academic career at San JoseState, but did not fulfill their educational commitment and became academically ineligible and subsequently left the University, thus initiating the penalty. Of those 58 student-athletes, 49 were recruited prior to Coach Tomey’s arrival yet he honored their scholarships and now, as a result, we face the penalty.

We cannot undo what has been done, but we can shape the future. We remain steadfastly committed to marching down the path to academic success that has been laid since January, 2005.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at San JoseState has complied with every request of the NCAA and responded to the recommendations of an Academic Consultant hired to audit our support systems. Many of our staff members have participated in voluntary APR training over the past two years and we have addressed the APR protocol with integrity.

As a whole, our department APR scores continue to rise. For the 2003-04 and 2004-05 years our APR average was 903. For the 2005-06 and 2006-07 periods again after the arrival of Bowen and Tomey the APR average increases markedly to 936.

Ten of our sports are well over the NCAA minimum of the 900 rolling average. Women’s volleyball and women’s golf show four-year averages of 985, and specific kudos is given to coach Wayne Wright and his Gymnastics team for achieving a perfect 1000 during the timeframe. Women's basketball has seen the biggest improvement, jumping from a 759 in 2003-04 to a 960 in 2006-07. Football is also to be commended for their progress. Their fall 2007 APR registered at 913 and projections show a minimum of a 900 APR for the 2007-08 academic year on track and ahead of NCAA mandates.

Our student-athlete graduation rate remains seven points higher than that of the University student body. Spartan athletics’ team GPA’s are moving in a positive direction as well. In the fall of 2004, the combined 16-sport GPA for 404 student-athletes was 2.608. In the fall of 2007, the combined GPA for 416 student-athletes was 2.873 with 44% of our student-athletes achieving a GPA of 3.0 or better. That’s what we call academic progress.