Rutgers announced earlier today that its football team scored 980 (out of a possible 1000) in the APR ratings, tying for third nationally with Duke. Rutgers is in elite company, as most of the other football teams that scored well aren't very good. The Rutgers athletic department certainly does a great job with academic support (which requires a lot of effort and resources). Credit goes to the players too, who go to class, and stay out of trouble on their way there. Coach Schiano also said that the team's score will be even higher next year, after 2004-2005 is replaced in the four year rolling average by 2008-2009.
Relatively more impressive was the 968 score registered by the Rutgers basketball team under Fred Hill. It had been 953 last year. Both teams led the Big East in their respective sports.
APR essentially measures a school's ability to keep its student-athletes going to class and eligible. Shouldn't it be a scandal that so many schools fare poorly? This isn't a case of me patting Rutgers on the back (or of trying to minimize the accomplishment).
I'd like to see another metric from the NCAA that combines APR with weighted GPA, for a more-comprehensive measure of a team's academic performance.