It’s APR -- academic progress rate -- day around the NCAA which means a bunch of schools are celebrating how well their teams did in the classroom. While many programs are doing a fist pump over hitting certain thresholds, there are a number of head coaches who are picking up a nice check as the result of players staying eligible.
Like, six-figures worth of cold hard cash thanks to their players showing up to class and taking tests.
USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz knows coaches contracts better than anybody and has been tweeting out some of the bonus money that various coaches are getting as a result of APR scores. While a few amounts are somewhat modest, a few others are collecting a very, very nice check.
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp gets $50,000 bonus, as team's new multi-year APR is 961. (He gets $50K if team has APR of 950 to 964.)
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 23, 2018
Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn gets $75,000 bonus as team's new single-year APR is 978. (He gets $75K if APR is at least 950 but less than 1000.)
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 23, 2018
Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson gets $100,000 bonus as team's new multi-year APR is 980 (single-year, 974). (He gets $100K if APR is for 950 or better.)
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 23, 2018
LSU football coach Ed Orgeron gets $75,000 bonus, as team's new single-year APR is 963. (He gets the bonus if single-year APR is 960 or greater.)
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 23, 2018
Lunch is on Paul Johnson today!
Northwestern led all football programs with a multi-year APR rate of 997, followed closely in the FBS ranks by Air Force, Vanderbilt and Duke among others. The overall average score for football teams across Division I ticked up two points to 964 for the 2016-17 school year. Student-athletes receive points for both staying eligible and staying in school, with a formula then determining the program’s single-year and multi-year scores.
Teams can be ruled ineligible for postseason play if their score is too low but only one program suffered that fate (Morgan State of the MEAC). Grambling also was hit with a Level One penalty for their APR score, which includes a reduction in practice time for the upcoming season. The lowest multi-year APR score for a FBS program belonged to Florida State with a 941.
