Howard Football Team Loses 2.91 Scholarships

The Howard University football team was one of 218 Division I programs sanctioned by the NCAA yesterday for failing to meet academic standards. The University of Maryland men's basketball team also failed to meet academic standards, but the program was not at risk for punishment because of a recently approved exemption.

The NCAA yesterday unveiled the latest batch of Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, which measure how well a team returns academically eligible athletes semester to semester, as well as the sanctions imposed on underachievers. Maryland's men's basketball team had a four-year score of 906, which fell below the 925 cutoff score that equates roughly to a 60 percent graduation rate.

Maryland was not at risk to lose scholarships because its score was above 900 and the two players who had left school midway through the spring semester of 2007 -- Mike Jones and D.J. Strawberry -- had already exhausted their eligibility. Had Jones and Strawberry been underclassmen when they left school mid-semester to pursue professional careers, Maryland probably would have needed to apply for a waiver to avoid sanctions.

Anton Goff, Maryland's associate athletic director for academic support, said it is critical for Maryland to remain above the 900 threshold for the Terrapins to qualify for the exception. Because Maryland's score fell below the 925 cutoff, the school submitted an academic improvement plan, which included obtaining more information about the academic strengths and weaknesses of recruits and having players meet with learning specialists to concentrate on time management, study skills and test-taking strategies.

"After four years, if you are below 925, they want to make sure you are aware of it and you are trying to do something about it," Goff said. "With men's basketball, because the numbers are so small, a couple people could affect your score tremendously."

NCAA President Myles Brand said in a teleconference yesterday that the goal of the APR is to change academic behavior on campus, not merely to punish programs for poor performance. But Howard's football team will lose 2.91 scholarships because of an APR score of 916.

Kevin Lennon, the NCAA vice president for membership services, said teams would impose scholarship restrictions at the earliest possible time and within two seasons. When asked about a timetable to impose penalties, Howard Athletic Director Dwight Datcher said: "I was more interested in putting the right procedures in place so it won't happen again, more so than worrying about how we would divide it up. If we correct the problem, we don't have to worry about ever dividing it up again."

Datcher added he was disappointed with the penalty but said that the school is putting corrective measures in place that include "increased study halls, and it is all about paying a little more attention to detail -- what the kids are taking, what they are studying and providing support they need."

Among Bowl Championship Series football teams, only Kansas (two scholarships) and Washington State (eight) were punished. Among men's basketball programs from major conferences, seven teams -- Kansas State, Purdue, Seton Hall, Colorado, Southern California, South Carolina and Tennessee -- were punished. All will lose one scholarship except for Southern California, which will lose two, and Colorado, which received a public warning.

After few programs were punished last spring, NCAA officials had pointed to this year's announcement as the time when underachieving teams would feel the full brunt of the APR's impact because programs would no longer be spared because of small roster sizes. But several high-profile programs, including men's basketball at Ohio State and Maryland, were spared penalties despite poor scores because of waivers or exceptions.

"The number of teams receiving penalty was not as high as we had thought at this time last year," Brand said. "The reason is because of measurable signs of improvement."