Southeast programs excel in APR

Southeast Missouri State athletics received a clean bill of health for the third straight year regarding the NCAA's annual Academic Progress Rate results released Tuesday.

None of Southeast's 15 sports were hit with any penalties from the NCAA for the 2013-14 season, which was also the case the past two years.

The last time Southeast suffered any penalties for substandard multi-year APR scores was for the 2010-11 season, when both the football and men's basketball programs lost scholarships.

Scores released Tuesday were calculated based on a four-year period from the 2008-09 through 2011-12 academic years.

The APR awards two points each term to athletes who meet academic eligibility standards and who remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible, multiplied by 1,000.

Teams that score below 900 can face immediate penalties. If a program consistently scores too low, it can be hit with the NCAA's toughest sanctions, like a ban from postseason play.

One Southeast program, women's gymnastics, received a perfect APR score of 1,000 for the third straight year. Gymnastics was among 976 teams publicly recognized last week for posting a multi-year APR in the top 10 percent of each sport.

Volleyball (995), men's cross country (992), women's cross country (989) and women's tennis (988) had the next best APR scores.

Other Southeast APR scores were:

Women's outdoor track (978), women's indoor track (978), women's soccer (976), baseball (975), softball (973), women's basketball (959), men's outdoor track (945), men's indoor track (943), football (932) and men's basketball (914).

Nine Southeast sports -- men's basketball, men's outdoor track, women's cross country, soccer, women's indoor track, women's outdoor track, women's tennis, women's cross country and volleyball -- all improved their APR scores from last year.

Women's cross country raised its score by 33 points.

Southeast ranked second in the Ohio Valley Conference in APR for volleyball, baseball, men's cross country, women's tennis and men's outdoor track.

"I'm very pleased that our overall APR is trending in a positive direction," Southeast director of athletics Mark Alnutt said in a release. "This is a true testament of our student-athletes, coaches and staff who recognize the importance of academic excellence as it pertains to the first-class collegiate experience we are working hard to provide for our student-athletes."

The NCAA reported that 36 Division I teams face penalties in 2013-14 for posting an APR score below 900, with 18 squads being banned from postseason play. No Ohio Valley Conference program was penalized.

The APR standards will become more difficult next year. In order to compete in the 2014-15 postseason, teams will be required to post a multi-year score of 930 or a 940 two-year average.