Buffalo, NY - All 20 of Canisius University's varsity athletic programs are in good standing, while 13 teams posted perfect single-year scores, according to the latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) statistics released Tuesday by the NCAA.
In all, 19 of Canisius' 20 varsity intercollegiate athletic teams scored 970 or better out of a possible 1,000 points. The latest NCAA APR report is based on NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) data submitted by the institution for the 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.
The 13 Golden Griffin teams that posted perfect APR scores for 2023-24 are men's basketball, women's basketball, men's cross country, golf, hockey, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, rowing, men's soccer, women's soccer, softball, men's track and volleyball.
Four Canisius programs also registered perfect multiyear APR scores, led by volleyball, who posted a perfect APR score for the fourth straight season and 10th time in the program history. Hockey also recorded a perfect multiyear APR for the fourth straight campaign and fifth time in program history (2014-15).
Men's cross country turned its seventh perfect multiyear APR score and first since the 2016-17 season with the release of Tuesday's report while men's track registered its fourth perfect multiyear APR overall and first since 2016-17.
Each academic year, every Division I sports team's APR is calculated using a simple and consistent formula. Scholarship student-athletes can earn 1 point for staying on course for a degree in their chosen major and 1 point for being retained (or graduating) at the end of each academic term. For schools that do not offer athletics scholarships, recruited student-athletes are tracked.
This is the fourth consecutive year of publicly reported APRs after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Division I board approved the release of APR scores but voted to continue the suspension of program penalties. Normal Academic Performance Program operations with program penalties and loss of access to postseason competition were originally scheduled to resume in spring 2024, but the Division I Committee on Academics decided not to enforce the loss of access to postseason competition for teams that scored lower than 930 last year, instead offering a conditional waiver due to lingering impacts of the pandemic.
However, normal operations are being enforced this year for teams scoring below the 930 benchmark, with strategic penalties that encourage an emphasis and prioritization on academics.
No Canisius varsity athletic program recorded a multiyear APR below 956 in the latest APR report.
ABOUT ACADEMIC PROGRESS RATES (APR)
The NCAA released data through 2023-24 as the 20th set of APR results, a formula introduced as part of the Division I Academic Performance Program. The NCAA released sport-specific data for 2023-24 to each institution, as well as the most recent four years of collected data used to determine a rolling four-year (multi-year) APR score for all athletic teams to provide a meaningful assessment of a team's academic performance.
The NCAA's APR is designed to track the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship at a particular institution. It accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation each term to provide a clear measure of each team's academic performance.
The APR is based on four years of data, with the most current year's data added and the oldest year removed, to create a four-year (multi-year) rolling rate. Penalties can be applied if an athletic team's multi-year APR score is below 930.
