Baseball avoids NCAA reprimand
Team barely meets academic progress rate
Published on Fri., April 27th, 2007
The NCAA recognized both the men’s and women’s cross country teams as well as the men’s golf team for exceptional performance in the academic progress report released Thursday by the Athletics Department. The baseball team was the only varsity sport that failed to meet the yearly goal.
The NCAA recognized teams that scored in the top 10 percent of their sports within their division. The three teams at the University that received recognition, women’s and men’s cross country and men’s golf, placed the University in the top three of the Big 12.
The NCAA will release a related report on May 2 that will reprimand schools that failed to score at least 900 during the last three years. The baseball team’s three-year average was only two points greater than the cutoff.
Each sport was given an individual score based on how many athletes maintained academic eligibility and stayed in school. If every athlete on the team met both requirements, the team received a perfect score of 1000. Sports that scored less than 925 for the year could lose scholarships if any athletes left school in poor academic standing. Sports that averaged less than 900 for the last three years will receive public reprimands from the NCAA and face losing more scholarships, along with practice time and the right to play in the postseason, if their scores do not improve in future years.
The baseball team failed to score 925 in last year’s report and had an athlete who left the team in poor academic standing. Those two factors caused the team to lose a partial scholarship. Associate Athletics Director Paul Buskirk said that the Athletics Department appealed the ruling and could have avoided the punishment if the team improved its score sufficiently this year. It did not, but Buskirk said the team had already taken away the partial scholarship for this season because it anticipated missing the mark.
The NCAA will release a related report on May 2 that will reprimand schools that failed to score at least 900 during the last three years. The baseball team’s three-year average was only two points greater than the cutoff.
Athletes that leave school early to play professional sports, such as Julian Wright, do not hurt the team’s score if they leave in good academic standing. Buskirk said the NCAA made an exception for athletes that left for medical reasons or to pursue professional careers.
Wright can help the team’s progress rate if he finishes his degree in the future, as former Jayhawk Kirk Hinrich did when he graduated in December 2005. Buskirk said former players Alonzo Jamison (1990-1992) and Luke Axtell are scheduled to graduate this year, which will benefit the basketball team in next year’s report.
Kansan staff writer Kyle Carter can be contacted at kcarter@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kelly Lanigan
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