On Wednesday, 13 Cal intercollegiate athletic teams, including the men’s basketball team, officially released Academic Progress Rate, or APR, scores of 1,000 — the highest possible score — for the 2014-15 season. This is the most teams to post a perfect score in Cal history.
The football team received a 997 for the 2014-15 season, an increase from 2013-14’s score of 946. Football head coach Sonny Dykes had initially seen a decrease in the team’s score in his first year from a 969 before his arrival.
The squad’s four-year average is now a 960, the highest since 2008-09. A 997 also ties the football team with Utah for the highest in the Pac-12. Stanford pulled just a 971 in 2014-15 but leads the Pac-12 four-year averages with a 983, while a 960 leaves Cal in the bottom half of the conference.
“For those sports where we had been deficient in recent years, we are seeing the tangible results of systems and culture changes we have put in place,” said Cal athletics director Mike Williams in a statement. “Under Sonny Dykes, our football program’s trajectory remains on an upward path, and the first-year results for our men’s basketball team under Cuonzo Martin couldn’t be any better.”
APR is measured by a combination of eligibility, retention rate and graduation rate to produce a consistent way of measuring a team’s academic performance compared to other schools and between seasons. Eighteen of the 25 Cal intercollegiate programs had a score of at least 900 in 2014-15.
The Cal men’s basketball team achieved a 1,000 in Martin’s first season as Cal men’s basketball coach and has also averaged a 960 over the past four years.
Other Cal teams that made the 1,000 mark include women’s tennis, men’s tennis and volleyball, all of which received NCAA Public Recognition Awards earlier this week. All three sports posted an average of 1,000 in the past four years.
The admissions standards for athletes are continuing to increase, with 40 percent of incoming athletes required to have a GPA of 3.0 or higher this past fall. That percentage is expected to continue to rise in the next two years to 60 and 80, respectively.
