After the Syracuse men’s basketball team was called out for poor academic performance during a Wednesday press conference with the U.S. Secretary of Education, head coach Jim Boeheim disagreed, saying Syracuse is academically fit.

‘We are qualified. We are over 930. Under this year’s rules or last year’s rules, we would be eligible to play in the tournament,’ Boeheim said Thursday during a press conference after Syracuse’s 72-65 win over UNC Asheville in the NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh.

Boeheim was referring to Syracuse’s academic progress rate, or APR. It is a four-year average of academic performance that rewards student athletes for remaining eligible and continuing their education at the same school. Institutions with an APR lower than 930 have 50 percent or fewer players graduate. Syracuse’s men’s basketball most recent APR score was 928 for the 2009-10 academic year.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors passed a rule in October requiring that all teams have an APR of 930 or higher to participate in any sports’ postseason competition. The rule will be phased in over the next 24 months starting in the 2012-13 academic year.

In a press conference Wednesday, Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, praised the decision to raise the bar for postseason eligibility and criticized UConn, Syracuse and Florida State for having APRs lower than 930.

Boeheim said Duncan was wrong to mention Syracuse, which would be fully eligible to play in the tournament this year, although the most recent APR statistics have not been released. He said he was happy to talk about the team’s APR and expressed dissatisfaction with the APR policy changing to penalize a school for players who leave to play professionally.

‘I really think, although in self-interest I try to talk the guy into staying and finishing his schoolwork, but if he thinks he can go to Chicago and work out with pro players, with a workout coach, work to get better for the draft, who am I to say, ‘You can’t do that, you got to help us?” Boeheim said.

After Boeheim’s press conference Thursday, SU Athletics also released a statement that the men’s basketball team is eligible for postseason competition and projects the team will meet the guidelines for postseason competition in 2012-13.

Last year, during a similar press conference, Duncan said college basketball teams not on track to graduate at least half their players should be punished and not have the opportunity to play in the postseason. Of the 68 teams that began in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, Duncan said 10 – including Syracuse – should have been disqualified for its players’ poor academic performance.

For the 2008-09 season, Syracuse had an APR of 912 and was penalized with two scholarship reductions. Syracuse University administrators attributed the low APR to basketball players Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf leaving mid-semester during the 2008-09 season to pursue professional careers. Boeheim referenced their departure during his press conference Thursday.

‘We had three guys leave one year,’ he said. ‘That’s why we fell below the 930 for one year. We made it up with two perfect scores. But that low score stays with us for four years.’

In this year’s NCAA men’s tournament, 13 teams have an APR below 930. Three years ago, 21 teams had APRs below the then-acceptable 925. Seventy-nine percent of teams in the NCAA Tournament are graduating 50 percent or more of their student-athletes for 2012, a three-percent increase since last year.

Richard Lapchick, author of the annual study on APR and graduation success rates which was released Monday from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, emphasized that more attention is still needed for student-athletes. He said a 60 percent graduation rate needs to become the acceptable standard for APR, and raising the minimum score from 925 to 930 is a step in the right direction.

dkmcbrid@syr.edu 

Published on March 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride