The 2014-15 Academic Progress Rate scores are in, and all 16 of Tennessee’s qualifying athletic teams came away with stellar scores, including nine teams posting a perfect 1000 score for the academic year.
And Tennessee’s football team posted their highest score in the Butch Jones era.
The Vols football team had an APR score of 956. That total is 11 points higher than a year ago, 24 points higher than two years ago, and 32 points better than the total three years ago.
When Butch Jones was hired in December of 2012, he quickly made getting the football team’s APR score elevated a top priority. Under previous head coach Derek Dooley, the APR score had dropped so low that the Vols were in actual danger of pacing postseason disqualification for a season or scholarship reduction if it didn’t get above the mandated average score of 925 for a four-year period.
But those days seem long gone for the Vols now.
The football team was just one of many teams to look impressive in the APR. As previously mentioned, nine teams scored a perfect 1000 for the academic year. UT’s baseball, men’s cross country, men’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis and women’s track and field programs all had perfect scores.
“Our student-athletes continue to perform at a very impressive level academically,” athletic director Dave Hart said in an email. “They are breaking their own records annually over the past few years in virtually every measurable academic category such as APR and graduation rates.
“This level of high academic performance is a testimony to our student-athletes being students first as well as the emphasis on academics from our coaches, faculty, administration and the staff at our Thornton Center under the direction of (Senior Associate Athletics Director & Assistant Provost) Dr. Joe Scogin.”
Thirteen UT teams tied or increased their score from last year. All eight of the men’s teams along with women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s swimming and diving and women’s tennis all improved their scores from the previous academic year.
The other scores not listed in this article:
- Baseball (965), up 11 points from last year and 29 points from two years ago.
- Men’s cross country (984), up 17 points from last year and 35 points from two years ago.
- Men’s golf (993), up seven points over last year and 21 points from two years ago.
- Men’s tennis (991) posted a 19-point improvement from last year.
- Men’s track and field (989, now combined), up 42 points from three years ago
