Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1116961
6 JUNE/JULY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI O n the week the University of Notre Dame completed final examinations (May 6‑10) for the 2019 spring semester, the latest set of statistics released by the NCAA on Academic Progress Rating (APR) demonstrated the school's non‑ stop commitment to achievement by its student‑athletes. Notre Dame paced all Football Bowl Subdivision programs with 14 APR Public Recognition Awards, including 13 perfect scores of 1,000, which also led FBS schools. It marked the fourth time in the 14‑year history of the APR in which at least 13 Irish teams had scored perfectly, with the others occurring in 2006 (the first year of the APR), 2015 and 2016. Only three schools — Notre Dame, Boston College and Stanford — have had 13 or more teams post scores of 1,000 in a single report. Notre Dame's number of perfect scores of 1,000 has ranked first eight times, with an institutional record of 17 in 2015, and second on six occasions among all FBS programs for 14 straight years (see chart on this page). All 24 varsity sports at Notre Dame that were surveyed scored above the APR average in each sport, and the only one under 990 was football at 966. The 13 programs with perfect scores were baseball, men's cross country, fencing, men's soccer, men's and women's tennis, men's track and field, softball, women's basketball, women's golf, women's la‑ crosse, women's swimming and diving, and volleyball. The men's lacrosse team also earned an APR Public Recognition Award with a score of 995. The APR, created to provide more of a real‐time measurement of academic success than graduation rates offer, is a team‑based metric where scholarship student‑athletes earn one point each term for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Schools that don't offer scholarships track their recruited student‑athletes. Every Division I sports team submits data to have its APR calculated each aca‑ demic year. The NCAA reports both sin‑ gle‑year rates and four‑year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member‑provided data. APRs for each team, lists of teams receiving public recognition and those receiving sanctions are available online through the NCAA's searchable database. The four‑year rates this year include student‑athletes who were in school between the 2014‑15 and 2017‑18 aca‑ demic years. ✦ UNDER THE DOME MAKING THE GRADES Notre Dame distinguishes itself again in Academic Progress Rating Since the start of the APR in 2006, Notre Dame has finished No. 1 or No. 2 nationally in teams that achieved perfect scores of 1,000 in NCAA graduation rate, and placed at the top again this spring. PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH MEDIA CONSISTENT EXCELLENCE Here is where Notre Dame has ranked annually among Football Bowl Subdivision institutions in terms of raw numbers of APR team scores of 1,000: 2019 — 1. Notre Dame 13 (6 men's sports, 7 women's sports); 2. (tie) Stanford and Northwestern 12 2018 — 1. Stanford 16; 2. Notre Dame 12 (5 men's, 7 women's) 2017 — 1. Stanford 14; 2. Notre Dame 12 (4 men's, 8 women's) 2016 — 1. Notre Dame 16 (7 men's, 9 women's); 2. Stanford 14 2015 — 1. Notre Dame 17 (9 men's, 8 women's); 2. Stanford 15 2014 — 1. Stanford 12; 2. Notre Dame 11 (7 men's, 4 women's) 2013 — 1. Notre Dame 12 (8 men's, 4 women's); 2. Stanford 11 2012 — 1. Notre Dame 12 (8 men's, 4 women's); 2. (tie) Boston College and Duke 9 2011 — 1. Duke 10; 2. Notre Dame 9 (5 men's, 4 women's) 2010 — 1. Duke 10, 2. Notre Dame 8 (5 men's, 3 women's) 2009 — 1. Notre Dame 9 (4 men's, 5 women's); 2. Duke 8 2008 — 1. (tie) Notre Dame (5 men's, 3 women's) and Duke 8 2007 — 1. Boston College 10, 2. Notre Dame 9 (5 men's, 4 women's) 2006 — 1. (tie) Notre Dame (7 men's, 7 women's) and Boston College 14