No news is good news
I'm down in Chattanooga working on a story about a Reds' Class AA prospect. A little while ago, I picked up the USA Today outside my hotel room and saw the listing of schools that face penalties because of poor performance under the NCAA's Academic Progress Rates. There are 53 schools on the list of men's basketball programs that are struggling. Kansas State is on that list. So are UAB, Purdue and Tennessee. But UC is not. I understand that's not the kind of news that fans get excited about. It's not a 20-win season or an NCAA Tournament berth. But it shows that the substantial damage that had been done to the UC program has been repaired. Perhaps better days are in the not-too-distant future.
19 Comments:
Al Davis words of wisdom..."Just win Baby" !
That really surprises me Bill.
Guys like James White, Jihad, did not graduate, and UC had players transferring out, Downey, and all of the Seniors this year are pretty much JUCOS. Is this APR a graduation index or a GPA index? JUCOS, Tranfers in do not count even if they graduate, and transfers out count against you.
Who is going to volunteer to show this to the Maze kid? One point for UC over Tennessee!
I really wish this would get at least some mention in the news....Lord knows the media is all over it when the result is negative.
The other teams aren't just struggling with the APR requirements. Because they aren't up to par they are losing scholarships. In the rebuilding stage we are in we can NOT afford that.
Bill,
My research shows that UC's APR is in the bottom 10 for Basketball.
Over the 4-5-6 years how guys who played at UC have graduated?, not many.
Basketball BCS Bottom 10 APRs
1. Southern Cal 863
2. Iowa State 869
3. Cincinnati 872
4. Colorado 873
5. Kansas State 880
6. Purdue 894
7 (tie). Indiana 899
7 (tie). South Carolina 899
9. Mississippi State 901
10. South Florida 904
I was of the understanding that UC isn't out of the woods just yet. But since they are graduating all of the seniors this year, and they are on the upslope of improving their APR, then they will avoid sanctions.
kylemack - I believe that JUCO's and transfers do count in the calculation as long as they graduate or leave in good academic standing. If a player leaves in bad academic standing, regardless if they transfer, declare for the draft, etc., they count against it. I think it was the old caluclation where they didn't count. The APR looks more at their academic standing rather than a graduation rate. UC wasnt penalized for their score this year because of the progress that they made from the last time. Bill had a column a few weeks back that explained the rise in their number.
It is trus that the APR score was 872. But that is up 34 points from last year's anemic 838. To raise the four year score by 38, the APR for this 2007-2007 had to be something like 950. The 2007-2008 APR number will likely be higher, since we will have 5 seniors who graduated on time.
This is why there are no sanctions for our basketball program, even though the multi-year score is lower than the mandated 925. Coach Cronin has a done a great job of emphasizing the importance of academic performance, something that was not a priority in the past.
Enlightenment for those curious about the APR:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080413/SPT0101/804130420/-1/all
Great story about the Big East and the BCS.
http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/WVU/200805060748
May 7, 2008
WVU, Big East quietly secure millions
THE BIG EAST'S eight football schools quietly locked up a boatload of money last week.
By Mitch Vingle
Sports Editor
THE BIG EAST'S eight football schools quietly locked up a boatload of money last week.
And almost no one noticed.
"It was," said West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, "monumental."
Perhaps appropriately, Pastilong spoke while attending a Fiesta Bowl function in Phoenix. That's the same city in which, four years earlier, the Bowl Championship Series handlers announced a three-pronged evaluation would be applied to member leagues after the 2007 season.
Because of the then-crippled Big East.
Last week, however, without fanfare, BCS officials reaffirmed the participation of the six leagues currently involved through the end of the 2013 season. That includes the Big East.
The reinvention of the league since the 2003 purge is complete. And one can now call it a complete success.
The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage.
"It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."
It was both quiet and satisfying.
Just like the unreported numbers-crunching that led to the reaffirmation.
"We had a formal [evaluation] process in December," Tranghese said. "No one made much of it. All of us [BCS officials] elected not to make a big deal of it.''
That's how Tranghese promised the process would be handled right after details of the three-pronged evaluation process were announced a few years back.
"We've been careful not to discuss specifics too much because we don't want the media to speculate," said the commissioner.
Mission accomplished.
"It's a complicated formula," Tranghese said Tuesday. "It's an analysis we agreed not to talk about. But it has to do with the performance in bowls, Top 25 teams, the conference rankings ... It's all football related. You have to reach particular levels."
The prongs as explained after the 2004 Phoenix meetings: a four-year average of each league's highest ranked team, the number of each league's Top 25 teams and the average BCS ranking of all members.
"Exactly," Tranghese said. "Everything has weighted values."
And these days the Big East is a heavyweight. So the weight has been lifted from those like the commissioner and Pastilong.
"[BCS membership] means security for the future," Pastilong said. "It means being in a position to vie for a national championship. It's very important."
Especially for his state of mind. Neither he nor Tranghese forget the directive issued by a BCS committee that said "beginning with the 1999 regular season, each BCS conference is subject to review and possible loss of automatic selection by the BCS should the conference champion not have an average ranking of 12 or higher over a four-year period." It was tabbed the "Big East rule."
Then came 2003, when the Atlantic Coast Conference raided the league. First Miami and Virginia Tech left. Then Boston College.
"There was anxiety," Pastilong remembers. "There was anxiety in regard to our conference, which trickled to us. That trickled to our followers. This [BCS membership] affects so much. It affects the overall strength of a conference and how a program is looked at."
The Big East landed a reprieve in 2004, after the breakup, when the BCS granted a stay through 2007. But the media heat remained and the committee felt compelled to release details of the standards.
"It was a very difficult period," Tranghese said. "All I said at the time was there's no sense fussing about it. Just put your nose to work and win games.
"Things are significantly better now.''
The commissioner pointed to the league's three straight BCS bowl victories. He pointed to "two incredibly great seasons."
And he pointed to the beautiful sound of silence when the Big East was again included among the BCS partners.
"Now,'' he said, "no one even discusses it."
To contact sports editor Mitch Vingle, send e-mail to mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or call 348-4827.
THE BIG EAST'S eight football schools quietly locked up a boatload of money last week.
And almost no one noticed.
"It was," said West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, "monumental."
Perhaps appropriately, Pastilong spoke while attending a Fiesta Bowl function in Phoenix. That's the same city in which, four years earlier, the Bowl Championship Series handlers announced a three-pronged evaluation would be applied to member leagues after the 2007 season.
Because of the then-crippled Big East.
Last week, however, without fanfare, BCS officials reaffirmed the participation of the six leagues currently involved through the end of the 2013 season. That includes the Big East.
The reinvention of the league since the 2003 purge is complete. And one can now call it a complete success.
The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage.
"It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."
It was both quiet and satisfying.
Just like the unreported numbers-crunching that led to the reaffirmation.
"We had a formal [evaluation] process in December," Tranghese said. "No one made much of it. All of us [BCS officials] elected not to make a big deal of it.''
That's how Tranghese promised the process would be handled right after details of the three-pronged evaluation process were announced a few years back.
"We've been careful not to discuss specifics too much because we don't want the media to speculate," said the commissioner.
Mission accomplished.
"It's a complicated formula," Tranghese said Tuesday. "It's an analysis we agreed not to talk about. But it has to do with the performance in bowls, Top 25 teams, the conference rankings ... It's all football related. You have to reach particular levels."
The prongs as explained after the 2004 Phoenix meetings: a four-year average of each league's highest ranked team, the number of each league's Top 25 teams and the average BCS ranking of all members.
"Exactly," Tranghese said. "Everything has weighted values."
And these days the Big East is a heavyweight. So the weight has been lifted from those like the commissioner and Pastilong.
"[BCS membership] means security for the future," Pastilong said. "It means being in a position to vie for a national championship. It's very important."
Especially for his state of mind. Neither he nor Tranghese forget the directive issued by a BCS committee that said "beginning with the 1999 regular season, each BCS conference is subject to review and possible loss of automatic selection by the BCS should the conference champion not have an average ranking of 12 or higher over a four-year period." It was tabbed the "Big East rule."
Then came 2003, when the Atlantic Coast Conference raided the league. First Miami and Virginia Tech left. Then Boston College.
"There was anxiety," Pastilong remembers. "There was anxiety in regard to our conference, which trickled to us. That trickled to our followers. This [BCS membership] affects so much. It affects the overall strength of a conference and how a program is looked at."
The Big East landed a reprieve in 2004, after the breakup, when the BCS granted a stay through 2007. But the media heat remained and the committee felt compelled to release details of the standards.
"It was a very difficult period," Tranghese said. "All I said at the time was there's no sense fussing about it. Just put your nose to work and win games.
"Things are significantly better now.''
The commissioner pointed to the league's three straight BCS bowl victories. He pointed to "two incredibly great seasons."
And he pointed to the beautiful sound of silence when the Big East was again included among the BCS partners.
"Now,'' he said, "no one even discusses it."
To contact sports editor Mitch Vingle, send e-mail to mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or call 348-4827.
Wow, that's just great! Maybe Mick and crew can win the NCAA APR championship. That certainly would make Z and her UC-21 (remember that?) puppets very happy.
And poor Tennessee. They'll just be in the pits by losing a scholarship. How will they ever manage with the quality athletes they have now and also have on the way. Guess Pearl and team will have another terrible season...LOL
Let's move on to football. Best guess is Mauk is finished as a player at UC and Jones or Anderson is starting by the second or third game this season. BK really has some potentially very good quarterbacks now with others on the way in the fall. This should make for very interesting QB competition. Anyway, can't wait for football to roll around.
Thanks Bill and folks for the info. Mick has accomplished one immediate goal (APR) and I trust that the other (RPI and the NCAA Tournment) will soon follow.
A bit disappointed about the news from scout.com that Bobboy has mazed himself with Vol. Hopefully, Mick can land an experienced guard before spring signing ends.
"Go Mick & Cats!" from Down Under
One step at a time, Prez, one step at a time. Whether you want to give him credit for it or not, this was a big part of the mandate he received from the administration. Past failures in the area of academics (real or imagined) were a major reason why the job was vacant to begin with. And we still have 13 scholarships instead of 12 or 11, because of the progress made.
Now, we will see whether he can apply the lessons he learned about coaching from Huggins an Pitino.
How about a story about the UC baseball team.
I know they don't traditionaly get a lot of pub... but they have a real chance to make the NCAA Tournement for the first time in a long time.
Thanks for the info Righthook
You name Kansas State, I think, as an implication of Nancy Choosing the correct coach in Mick over Bob. However, Kansas State lost that scholarship in the classroom before last season, and Huggins had nothing to do with the poor academic standing of that team.
I could care less about wins and losses--I just want those kids to graduate!
Prez, Mick didn't want Maze cause he is going to barely qualify. Mick has righted the ship and they will be improved this year. Only problem is that this coming season the BEast is stacked and every other team got better with the exception of USF.
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