BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s golf team is being honored by the NCAA for its latest Academic Progress Rate score.
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The NCAA on Thursday recognized college sports teams from around the country that achieved an APR score in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards by the NCAA are part of a broad Division I academic reform effort.
“We are proud of our women’s golf team because this recognition signifies academic achievement for a team that is also successful in athletic competition,” said LSU director of athletics Joe Alleva. “This honor reflects the emphasis that our women’s golf program, under the leadership of Coach Karen Bahnsen, places on academic performance.”
The LSU women’s golf team is one of only 10 sports teams out of 236 squads in the entire Southeastern Conference that were recognized for academic achievement by the NCAA. Three Vanderbilt squads were honored while LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Ole Miss had one each.
A total of 767 teams from across the country were recognized. The teams recognized this year represent 11.9 percent of the 6,484 Division I teams. The list includes 448 women’s teams and 319 men’s or mixed squads.
“The vast majority of sports teams are performing very well academically and exceeding the 925 threshold for their APR scores,” Brand said. “Nearly 800 of these teams are worthy of special attention, and I commend them for their excellence in academics and athletics.”
The APR is a point system based on scholarship athletes’ eligibility and retention for a pre-determined time period. NCAA sports falling below an established point cutoff are subject to penalties including scholarship reductions.