U, Ole Miss are only BCS football teams penalized

The Gophers and Mississippi, a member of the Southeastern Conference, each lost three scholarships because of poor academic performance.

By DENNIS BRACKIN, Star Tribune

Last update: May 7, 2009 - 7:05 AM

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The University of Minnesota has the dubious distinction of being one of only two BCS-conference schools to be penalized by a loss of football scholarships because of this year's Academic Progress Report (APR) score. The Gophers and Mississippi, a member of the Southeastern Conference, each lost three scholarships.

The NCAA released its national figures Wednesday for the years 2004-05 through 2007-08; Minnesota released its individual program scores and announced its penalties last week. Programs finishing with an APR below 925 that have had athletes leave the program who were academically ineligible -- so-called 0-for-2 athletes -- are subject to penalties.

NCAA President Myles Brand said that on a national level, he was especially pleased with the five-year upward trends in three sports that historically have had the most academic problems: baseball, football and men's basketball. Minnesota's APR in all three was below the national average, although its scores in baseball (952, NCAA average 963.8) and men's basketball (930, NCAA average 947) were above the minimum 925.

The Gophers' football program had a 915 APR; the national average was 948. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said the program's low APR was because of three factors: a 2007 campus sexual assault that led to the dismissal from the team of five players and conviction of Dominic Jones; transfers after the coaching change from Glen Mason to Tim Brewster; and poor academic performance by Brewster's first recruiting class in 2007. Only eight of 19 players remain from that class, which was hastily put together after Brewster got the job in January 2007.

Brewster called his program's low APR "a direct result of the coaching change" but said he was optimistic about the academic future. The Gophers had an outstanding fall semester APR of 957, and if next year's four-year APR is back above 925, the Gophers will recoup the three scholarships. Brewster gave out three fewer scholarships than he was allowed last February.

"I really feel like we now have the academic structure in place," Brewster said.

Of the Gophers' 25 programs, 18 exceeded an APR of 965, a figure that is deemed by the NCAA to be "high performing."

Three Big Ten men's basketball programs lost scholarships: Indiana and Ohio State each lost two while Purdue lost one.

On a national level:

• For the first time since the inception of the APR, three schools -- Centenary men's basketball and Jacksonville State and Tennessee-Chattanooga football -- were banned from postseason play next season for academic underachievement. The schools had failed to meet scholastic standards for three consecutive years.

"It is a watershed," Brand said. "It shows the depth and the severity of the penalty for those schools and those teams that really can't bring themselves into conformity with academic performance."

• Walter Harrison, chair of the NCAA's Committee on Academic Performance, called for women's basketball to be placed on a "watch list" because of a surprising academic downturn. Women's basketball had more 0-for-2 athletes and an increase in ineligibility rates, according to the latest APR. The Gophers women's team had a 939 APR; the national average was 962.

• A total of 107 schools had at least one sport that incurred a penalty as a result of the APR.

Staff writer Myron P. Medcalf contributed to this report.

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