The baseball and men’s soccer programs at Cal Poly each face a contemporaneous penalty of losing 64 percent of an athletic scholarship, the NCAA decreed through its Academic Progress Rate penalty summary released May 2.
According to school officials, baseball was operating with 11.7 total athletic scholarships, while men’s soccer had been with 9.9, respectively. Now, they’ve been limited to awarding 11.06 and 9.26.
Men’s soccer’s 911 multiyear APR placed it within the 1st-10th percentile rank within all sports, while baseball’s 914 also put it in the same 1st-10th rank.
Both sports’ limitations are due to an intricate, wide variety of criteria, yet are somewhat deceiving, Cal Poly athletic director Alison Cone said.
Baseball, she explained, suffered from losing players to the professional ranks, among other causes.
“(The APR score) doesn’t necessarily reflect bad students, particularly in the case of Cal Poly, with the degrees we have,” Cone said.
Mustangs baseball head coach Larry Lee said schools are trying to adjust to the “very complex, complicated” criteria that has “been a work in progress on (the NCAA’s) end.
“There are a lot of different reasons you could’ve lost a scholarship,” he said. “Sometimes it’s low team GPA, sometimes it’s a single player.”
The baseball team’s GPA dipped from 2.85 in fall 2007 to 2.7 in winter 2008, Lee said; Cal Poly started its season with 11 away games during the more recent quarter, traveling as far away as Alabama beginning Feb. 22, before playing a home opener March 11.
A “glaring problem” through which Cal Poly “lost a great percentage” of its points, Lee said, was that in some instances, community-college transfers’ units weren’t completely accepted.
Cal Poly will be able to choose whether to undergo the one-year limitation next year or the year after, Lee said, explaining the decision will hinge somewhat on how many players are lost to the professional ranks – a contingent he estimates will be comprised of two to six.
“It’s not an exact science,” he said. “But we’d like to take care of it as soon as possible.”
Men’s soccer, Cone said, lost points due to making a coaching change following the 2005 season.
“It shouldn’t reflect poorly on either coach,” Cone said. “But it is fact that when coaches change, a lot of student athletes choose to go elsewhere.”
Paul Holocher, Cal Poly men’s soccer head coach, said his program’s limitation is on a one-year basis, as well.
“We take our academic commitment very seriously,” he said.
Cone added she was especially pleased with the improvement of men’s basketball, whose 922 placed it within the 30th-40th percentile rank within the sport, two years after losing a pair of scholarships due to academic struggles or players leaving the team.
“Nationally struggling quite a bit are men’s basketball programs,” she said. “And ours has done a very good job.”
The APR, based on data submitted by institutions for the 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years, takes into account any student athlete receiving aid.
Scoring the highest at Cal Poly were women’s swimming and diving (with a 1,000 to finish in the 90th-100th percentile ranking within all sports) and women’s cross country (with a 992 to come in the 80th-90th category of the same percentile ranking, respectively).
Cal Poly’s 10 men’s programs averaged a 930.4 multiyear APR, while the 10 women’s averaged a 966.6.
“We have really high standards we love,” Cone said. “Overall, I thought we did pretty well on the APR.”