COLUMBIA - The NCAA released its Division I Academic Progress Rating scores on Tuesday, and 12 of Missouri's 18 programs earned perfect 1,000 scores for the 2018-19 academic year.
The Tigers' baseball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's swimming and diving, women's basketball, softball, tennis, women's track and volleyball programs all posted scores of 1,000, according to documents posted online by the NCAA. The women's basketball, women's cross country and tennis teams all have 1,000 multi-year APR scores.
The NCAA said last week a record 1,266 teams posted perfect scores in 2018-19.
The Tigers' football team posted a 991 APR, an increase from 969 in 2017-18, to raise its multi-year APR score to 973, and the men's basketball team posted a 979 to raise its multi-year APR score to 958, an increase from 953. During Kim Anderson's last two seasons, the men's basketball team flirted with postseason ineligibility and other penalties, posting a 934 multi-year score in 2015-16 and a 932 in 2016-17.
Missouri's two lowest four-year APR scores are for men's track (956) and basketball (958), both of which are in the first to 10th percentile of scores from all sports. Men's and women's cross country, football, men's golf, men's and women's swimming and diving, wrestling, women's basketball, softball, tennis, women's track and volleyball teams all posted four-year APR averages higher than the D-I average.
APR is calculated by giving individual teams and the overall athletic department one point per term or semester for each student-athlete receiving athletic financial aid who stays academically eligible, and one point for each individual who stays in school, transfers while remaining academically eligible or graduates. That total is divided by the possible number of points and multiplied by 1,000. The rolling four-year average drops the oldest score from the average when the new results are entered.
The four-year rolling APR average is used to determine postseason eligibility, such as ranking 6-6 football teams vying for a single bowl berth. Teams that record sub-930 APRs - a score the NCAA says on average predicts a 50 percent graduation rate - are ineligible for postseason play in their respective sport the following year.
The NCAA announced 15 programs - up from eight last year - would be banned from postseason competition next season for low APR scores, including: Alabama A&M men's basketball, men's track and field and women's soccer; Alabama State men's basketball; Coppin State women's track and field; Delaware State men's basketball; Grambling State men's track and field; Howard football; McNeese State football; Prairie View A&M football; Southern University men's cross country and men's track and field; and Stephen F. Austin baseball, football and men's basketball.
Starting this year, APR will also be used to distribute a portion of NCAA revenues based on "academic achievement units," which the NCAA qualifies as:
Overall single-year all-sport APR score of 985 or higher
Overall all-sport Graduation Success Rate of 90 percent or higher
A federal graduation rate that is at least 13 percent higher than the federal graduation rate of the institution's general student body
The NCAA is not disclosing which schools receive academic achievement units.