I'll comment on this on a subsequent post, as it will be long enough as it is. From the 5/07/08 Birmingham News:
UAB lost two scholarships in men's basketball and nine in football from the latest round of the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate data, which showed UAB as the second-most penalized school in the country.
In addition to penalties in its major-revenue sports, UAB lost about half a scholarship in men's golf and received historical penalty warnings for also underachieving in women's basketball, men's soccer and men's tennis. Only Sacramento State had more teams penalized, with seven.
Athletes are required to take a certain number of core courses, maintain a certain GPA and make progress toward graduation. The Academic Progress Rate awards two points each term to athletes who meet academic eligibility standards and who remain at their school.
A team's APR score is calculated by using the total points earned by the team at a given time, divided by the total points possible.
The cutoff to avoid immediate penalties is a 925 score, which the NCAA says equates to a 60 percent graduation rate. Historical penalties are assessed when a team falls below a 900 score.
In this, the first year the NCAA had complete four-year data, UAB sharply dropped in both football and men's basketball, thus incurring historical penalty warnings.
The football team scored an 869, third worst among 120 Division I-A teams and down from 906 last year, when it lost one scholarship. The men's basketball team was at 858, the 16th-lowest among 337 Division I teams and down from 903 a year ago.
"The numbers are unacceptable," UAB Athletics Director Brian Mackin said. "We're firmly committed to devoting the resources and attention necessary for improvement. We've really taken steps over the last two years and put this as a priority."
For teams whose APR numbers have decreased in recent years, such as UAB, "the situation is dire," NCAA President Myles Brand said.
UAB was penalized this year because it had "0-for-2" athletes in football, men's basketball and men's golf - in other words, athletes who left school ineligible and before their eligibility had expired.
The football program imposed its scholarship reduction last season. In addition to being limited to 75 scholarships, UAB was restricted to 22 initial signees. The school used one initial-signee reduction in the 2007 class and two from the'08 class.
The Blazers plan to lose their men's basketball scholarships next season, meaning they would have 11 on scholarship as opposed to 13.
Both the football and men's basketball programs underwent coaching changes over the last two years, with Watson Brown and Mike Anderson leaving. Indiana, where current UAB basketball coach Mike Davis previously coached, scored an 899 in this year's APR.
The sanctions for UAB came with an initial historical penalty for each team, serving as a public warning that worse sanctions could be ahead. Historical penalties can involve more scholarship reductions, loss of practice time and, eventually, a postseason ban.
Walter Harrison, president of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance, said he hopes university presidents will take historical penalties more seriously.
"The historical penalty indicates you've had a problem for several years and means you're not addressing it," Harrison said.
Mackin said within the last two years UAB has expanded its academic center and tripled its number of computers.
"We've got math and writing labs so our student-athletes can get particular help on these subjects," Mackin said. "It's our goal for all of our teams to meet or exceed that 925 mark."
UAB says every athletic program had a 925 or above during the fall 2007 semester.
