The Oregon volleyball program had plenty to cheer about last Wednesday when the NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Report.
The team posted a perfect score of 1,000 for the third straight year, while men’s golf, softball, women’s cross country, women’s tennis and women’s golf also earned perfect 2014-2015 scores to lead the Oregon athletic department.
The NCAA calculates APR to track eligibility and retention of student-athletes on scholarship across the country. Programs must score higher than 930 over a four-year period — which all Oregon programs did — to remain eligible for postseason competition.
APR is calculated by awarding each student-athlete receiving athletic financial aid one point for staying in school and another point for being academically eligible. That total is then divided by points possible and multiplied by 1,000 to assess the APR for a given year.
The April 26 release said Oregon men’s golf raised its yearly APR 32 points, which was the largest increase on the men’s side.
“We do take a lot of pride in getting a [score] of 1,000,” volleyball assistant coach Stacy Metro said. “That’s what we strive to do. We strive to be better at everything we do. We were pretty happy when we saw that yesterday.”
Baseball, men’s basketball, women’s tennis and volleyball all saw their multi-year APR scores unchanged.
“Obviously you have to be eligible to play, but we like to think we do well both on and off the court,” senior volley player Kacey Nady said.
Soccer, lacrosse and basketball were the only women’s teams with a decrease in its multi-year APR.
A few Oregon head coaches have bonuses built into their contracts for yearly APR score releases. Those bonuses for this year include:
George Horton (baseball): multiyear APR 987 — $25,000
Dana Altman (basketball): single year APR 945 — $5,000
Mark Helfrich (football): single year APR 967 — $50,000
Robert Johnson (men’s track and field): multiyear APR 975 — $2,000
Robert Johnson (women’s cross country): multiyear APR 996 — $4,000
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne