College Athlete Academic Progress Rates May Not Be “Fair Or Accurate,” Sports Journalist Says

Almost all of the public universities in Virginia have at least one sport with a perfect academic progress rate among its athletes, but that may not be as impressive as it sounds. The NCAA says schools are required to report how well athletes with scholarships perform in classrooms using “a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete.” But those scores may not be “a fair or accurate picture of [students’] academic progress,” Dom Amore, a sports journalist for the Hartford Courant, said. Amore, a columnist and reporter who covers the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team, said that to satisfy the NCAA, a university just needs to make sure its athletes don’t fail required classes and don’t transfer or drop out in the middle of a semester. “It’s not hard to achieve a [score of] 1,000,” Amore said. “You just have to make sure the kids go to class.”

Amore said that some schools are likely at a disadvantage for APR scores.