UC Irvine has the 12th-lowest Academic Progress Rate among the 68 teams in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, according to a report issued Monday.
UC Irvine’s rate was 954, 57th among tournament teams, according to “Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the Academic Records of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Teams,” a report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, based on figures reported by the NCAA.
The rate is a four-year average of academic performance that rewards student-athletes for remaining eligible as well as continuing education at the same school.
Every player receiving an athletic scholarship earns one retention point for staying in school and one eligibility point for being academically eligible. A team’s total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by 1,000 to determine the Academic Progress Rate.
The rates in the report released Monday are four-year averages covering the 2013-14 through 2016-17 academic years.
When UC Irvine made its other tournament appearance in 2015, it had an Academic Progress Rate of 958, tying for 42nd.
There was no immediate response to an email sent to UC Irvine seeking comment.
Defending national champion Villanova and perennial powers Kentucky and North Carolina are among the eight teams in the 2019 tournament field with perfect scores of 1,000. The others were Baylor, Belmont, Michigan State, Syracuse and Temple.
Prairie View A&M had the lowest score, 930.
The Academic Progress Rate was implemented by the NCAA in 2003 in an effort to hold institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes. The system includes rewards for superior academic performance and penalties for teams that do not achieve certain academic benchmarks, including reductions in practice time and scholarships and a ban from the NCAA Tournament.