NATCHITOCHES – Strong performance by Northwestern State student-athletes was reflected in the annual release of the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate report, which showed NSU's departmental multi-year score of 971.8 among the best in the 13-member Southland Conference and statewide.

 

Four sports posted perfect 1,000 APR scores for the 2014-15 year:  Lady Demon soccer and tennis, along with men's and women's cross country. Lady Demon basketball and men's track and field missed perfect scores by one point.

 

The Lady Demon softball team's multi-year 990 APR led the state and was second in the Southland. NSU's women's basketball program had the second-best multi-year score (970) in the Southland Conference and ranked third among all Division I schools in Louisiana.

 

Women's cross country (993, third in the Southland, fourth in the state) and volleyball (989, second in the state, fourth in the Southland) also ranked highly with their multi-year rates.

 

Two NSU programs set all-time highs with their multi-year and single-year APR scores. Demon football's multi-year 951 APR, and the 947 posted by men's track and field, were bests since APR scores began being reported over a decade ago. The single-year 987 APR by the Demon track and field team, and football's 969 single-year score for 2014-15, were also all-time bests for those programs.

 

The departmental multi-year rate (971.8) was fourth among the 13 Southland members and fifth, second among FCS schools, in ranking the state's 12 Division I athletic programs. Tulane led at 988.7, followed by LSU (980), McNeese State (973.2) and UL Lafayette (972.6).

 

Director of athletics Greg Burke was very pleased with the results released Wednesday by the NCAA.

 

"The ongoing level of academic excellence within the NSU Athletic Department, as evidenced by the most recent NCAA APR report, is a credit to a culture which has been established and sustained by a group of dedicated student-athletes, staff members, coaches, and faculty.  I am appreciative of each and every one of those individuals for their commitment to the most important of our three department cornerstones – academic achievement," said Burke, who is one of 20 university officials from across the country serving on the NCAA's Division I Committee on Academics.

 

"The time demands of being a Division I student-athlete should never be underestimated, which is why I am so appreciative of the sacrifices they make every day to 'make the grade' in the classroom while also representing our university, community, and alumni base in a positive manner," he said.

 

Northwestern State is one of an elite, relatively small group of Division I athletic programs across the south and beyond to have not received any warnings or penalties due to low APR performance.

 

Among other highlights for NSU in the NCAA report, Demon football and cross country each ranked third in the Southland Conference and fourth statewide in multi-year rates.

This year's report is for the four-year period beginning in the fall of 2011. Points are awarded each semester for academic eligibility and retention, with two points possible per semester per student-athlete.