Football
Missouri State football penalized for continued decrease in Academic Progress Rate score
Missouri State football continues to face Academic Progress Rate challenges and will be penalized for the upcoming season.
The football program’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) was revealed Tuesday with a score of 912. Teams must earn a four-year average APR of 930 to compete in championships.
However, the NCAA said in a release that it is not enforcing the loss of access to postseason competition for teams below the required number. This year, a conditional waiver is being offered due to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Missouri State football isn’t eligible for the 2024 postseason due to NCAA rules for programs transitioning from being an FCS conference to an FBS. The Bears are also ineligible to qualify for a bowl game in 2025 due to the same rules.
More: Ranking how all of Missouri State’s athletics teams will fare with move to Conference USA
Instead of a postseason ban due to its low multi-year APR score, Missouri State has received a Level One Penalty and will have a reduction in practices it can conduct this season. The penalty, according to the NCAA, limits teams to 16 hours of athletics activities per week over five days as opposed to 20 over six days. The four hours lost are to be replaced with academic activities.
A Missouri State athletics spokesperson confirmed the football program’s penalties in a text message on Tuesday afternoon and noted all other programs are in good standing. He said football will remain under an NCAA-approved improvement plan including practice reductions.
Where does Missouri State football rank in APR?
Bears head coach Ryan Beard and MSU athletics director Kyle Moats said after last year’s APR score of 927 that raising the number was a point of emphasis. The number decreased by 15 points, giving MSU the eighth-worst multi-year rate among FCS programs.
Four football teams below Missouri State are Historically Black College and University programs. One is Western Illinois, which was a fellow member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference during the span. Another is Utah Tech, where incoming Missouri State President Dr. Richard “Biff” Williams was previously president. It had the second-worst score in FCS at 887. The immediate three schools ahead of MSU in multi-year scores are also HBCUs.
Missouri State football has the lowest score among Conference USA teams when the Bears join the league in 2025. No other school scores below 930 with Jacksonville State being the second-lowest at 934.
MSU football has the lowest APR scores of the school’s athletics programs with beach volleyball being second with a qualifying score of 949. Notably, men’s basketball has a score of 975 with women’s basketball at 990.
More: Missouri State to Conference USA: What football teams can Bears host with move to FBS?
How Missouri State football will face immediate challenges when trying to raise their single-year scores
Missouri State will face the challenge of raising its score while adding 22 scholarship football players to its roster, which comes with the transition to FBS competition. The school previously had 63 scholarships spread across 85 individuals. It will now have 85 scholarships to give 85 individuals with FBS not allowing partials.
The Bears will also be challenged with having low single-year scores on their résumé throughout the coming years, making it even more difficult to raise. The last three years of scores, which have all fallen well below the 930 requirement, will be calculated into their multi-year rate next season.
More: How will Missouri State be ‘budget-neutral’ with CUSA move? Here are new revenue streams.
MSU athletics spokesperson Rick Kindhart said the school is optimistic that its numbers will increase as soon as next year. Based on projections the school can collect for 2023-24, the football team should have a 979 score from this past fall and a 950 overall for the entire year. Under Beard, Kindhart said MSU’s had two of the highest single-year scores the school’s ever had.
Missouri State football has also seen an improvement in its overall GPA, which isn’t taken into account in APR.
Missouri State’s single-year Academic Progress Rate scores
- 2015-16 — 990
- 2016-17 — 976
- 2017-18 — 952
- 2018-19 — 965
- 2019-20 — Unavailable in NCAA database
- 2020-21 — 908
- 2021-22 — 899
- 2022-23 — 909
How is APR calculated?
APR is a measure the NCAA calculates with the following:
“Each student-athlete receiving athletically related financial aid earns one point for staying in school and one point for being academically eligible.
“A team’s total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by 1,000 to equal the team’s Academic Progress Rate.
“In addition to a team’s current-year APR, its rolling four-year APR is also used to determine accountability.”
A few months after the adoption of the previous one-time transfer rule, which allows student-athletes to transfer from one school to another without having to sit out a year, the NCAA said transfer college athletes will earn APR points for their previous teams if they meet Division I progress-toward-degree requirements when they change schools.
The national average four-year APR average for football programs is 963.
More: Missouri State move to Conference USA won’t be cheap. Here are ways expenses will increase
What has Missouri State previously said about improving its APR?
Moats said in 2023 that Missouri State football’s GPA is not a problem but the roster turnover following the hiring of Bobby Petrino in 2020 led to lower retention. With new coach Ryan Beard aware of the potential issue, Moats said there will be a greater emphasis on adding recruits who will transfer to MSU to graduate, getting players who transferred away from the Bears to graduate and keeping players on the roster on track to graduate.
Outgoing MSU President Clif Smart, in a 2023 interview, took some of the blame off of Petrino while also putting some on himself and others in charge around the now-current offensive coordinator at Arkansas.
More: Missouri State President takes some blame off Bobby Petrino for football’s low APR
“I think he came into a situation where he didn’t have players that could win,” Smart said. “I don’t care how good of a coach you are, if you don’t have players, you can’t win. I think we could have supported him better through some of that and put some constraints on him.”
Moats said in 2023 he hoped the school would receive relief or there would be adjustments to APR rules due to the pandemic and transfer portal.
During the final press conference of the 2023 football season, Beard was asked if the Bears’ APR would be where it needed to be eligible for postseason play.
“Yeah, I think it’ll work out,” Beard said.
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