April 29, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The NCAA honored the University of San Diego softball team with public recognition awards as one of 29 Division I softball teams for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores.
"Our student-athletes are dedicated to pursuing excellence both on and off the field and I am honored the NCAA has recognized our academic success for the second consecutive year," said head coach Melissa McElvain.
Of the 29 different softball teams to make the list, USD has faced four schools on the list (Harvard University, Stanford University, Texas A&M University, and UCLA) this season. San Diego was the only PCSC school to achieve the top 10 percentile list for softball. Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara each honors in other sports.
These teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in all of Division I softball. The 712 teams recognized this year represent 11.4 percent of the 6,272 Division I teams. The list includes 401 women's teams and 311 men's or mixed squads. A total of 192 Division I institutions had at least one team on the top APR list. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000 over the data collection period.
"Congratulations to these teams and their student-athletes for success in the classroom," NCAA President Myles Brand said. "They are setting a great example for their peers and future student-athletes, as well."
The effort is part of a public-recognition program the Division I Board of Directors approved in January 2006. Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized.
For the second consecutive year, Yale University had the most teams (28) recognized. By conference, the Ivy Group had by far the most number of teams honored (150), followed by the Patriot League (89) and the Big East Conference (47).
By sport, women's tennis featured the most teams (46), followed by women's volleyball (41) and women's golf (39). The men's sport with the highest number of teams were basketball and cross country (both with 33) and golf (32). This is the first year that basketball led men's sports.
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Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized. There are fewer awards this year than last year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores. In some sports, teams had to maintain a perfect score over the four-year period in order to be recognized.
Multi-year APR scores for all 6,272 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historically based penalties for low-performing teams.
For the full list, please visit the APR LIST
Division I Softball Schools College of the Holy Cross Cornell University Dartmouth College DePaul University Fairfield University Florida State University Harvard University* Lafayette College Lehigh University Pennsylvania State University Princeton University Robert Morris University Saint Joseph's University Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Stanford University* Texas A&M University, College Station* University of California, Los Angeles* University of Iowa University of Maine, Orono University of Notre Dame University of Pennsylvania University of San Diego University of South Florida University of Texas at Austin University of Tulsa University of Virginia Villanova University Wagner College Yale University
