Academic Progress Rate (APR) Impact on Georgia Tech
The NCAA is implementing a new rule that your school must have a multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 930. That will not hurt most schools, football speaking, because most football players stay until they are juniors or seniors…but basketball is another story.
Georgia Tech's most recent APR is 915. To compete you need to be at 930. Nobody knows what new coach Brian Gregory has in place, but one thing is for sure, the school APR has to be up to NCAA standards by the time the tournament comes around if they want to get a bid. Now the school plans to be well over the benchmark by the time the rule is in place, which could likely take up to a year. That should be enough time.
Another question that is raised is, what is accounted for or calculated in this score? Georgia Tech has had a lot of "one and done" students heading for the NBA….Iman Shumpert for example. It is said that the school will receive credit for a former student’s degree and work that has been put in. In the long term, it will hurt their APR if kids only stay for one year as oppose to two or four.
What kid will turn down first round draft pick money to stay in school for four years? The answer has been proven in the past, not many, and this is where the complication can come in for schools who have a low APR already that are trying to get kids to stay.
The right man has been put behind the wheel as far as academics go. At Dayton, Coach Gregory obviously held his players accountable for academics along with performance on the court. The school's APR was the highest in the Atlantic 10, three of six years going from 974 to 985. Whether he can duplicate that at Georgia Tech remains to be seen.
Many things have to be taken into consideration not just by Georgia Tech, but by many Tech schools. Gregory will have to spend extra time in the recruiting process, not just getting elite talent but making sure they can perform on the academic level as well. A good example of having the dual player, meaning having academic goals and also being a good athlete, can be Pierre Jordan who is transferring from Florida State with two years of eligibility left and plans on getting his masters degree as a Yellow Jacket. The six foot guard has tournament experience playing alongside Chris Singleton who is now in the NBA and is known for being intelligent and having a very high basketball IQ.
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