UTC posts high APR scores

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s soccer team will lose four hours of practice time next season for failing to reach the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate benchmark.

The NCAA released the latest APR scores today and, as expected, soccer is the only UTC sport that was penalized.

Soccer’s four-year APR score is 889, well below the benchmark of 925, but because its 2009-10 score was 984 the NCAA granted UTC relief from more serious penalties, such as scholarship reductions or a postseason ban.

The football team moved out of the historical penalty phase for the first time by raising its four-year average to 925. It posted a 988 single-year score, which is by far the program’s highest since the APR was created six years ago.

Among single-year scores at UTC, football’s 988 was exceeded only by perfect scores of 1,000 from men’s cross country, men’s golf and men’s tennis.

Men’s golf has the highest four-year score at 987, followed by volleyball (985), women’s basketball (981) and women’s indoor and outdoor track each scored 980.

For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow's Times Free Press. You can also follow beat writer John Frierson on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.