BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – As one of Conference USA's leaders in NCAA Public Recognition Awards, it is fitting that WKU would also serve as one of the league's leaders in the Annual Progress Report which was released by the organization on Wednesday.
The APR provides a real-time look at a program's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance. This year, the APR score was a multi-year average of the 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 academic years.
Every Hilltopper and Lady Topper program exceeded the NCAA's mandated 930 minimum and 11 programs (out of 14) surpassed that threshold by 40 points or more. WKU is one of eight C-USA member schools to have 11 programs post 970 or higher scores in the 2016-17 APR report, highlighted by four programs (volleyball, men's cross country, women's golf, women's tennis) who posted perfect 1,000 APR scores.
Last week, those four programs, a record-high, were honored for their success in the classroom and received Academic Performance Program Public Recognition Awards for having a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores in the top 10 percent nationally through the 2016-17 academic year.
It marked the 13th-straight year the Lady Topper volleyball program has ranked in the top 10 percent nationally, and WKU has now had multiple programs honored for four consecutive seasons for the first time since the program began. WKU's volleyball program is one of only 85 to earn the award in each of the 13 years of the program.
The Division I Board of Directors set a score of 930 as the threshold for teams to meet or face possible immediate and historical sanctions. Programs falling below the 930 benchmark face penalties such as practice time reduction, scholarship reduction and possible postseason bans.
Over the past calendar year, a total of 100 WKU student-athletes have earned their degrees from Western Kentucky University, including 64 in spring commencement ceremonies. The average cumulative GPA of the 100 graduates was a 3.13, and undergraduate degrees obtained included: exercise science, recreation and sport administration, biology, marketing, finance, chemistry, nursing, among others.
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