Wisconsin football posts top APR among FBS teams

Once again, Wisconsin's athletic teams have performed admirably in the latest Academic Progress Rates report released Wednesday by the NCAA.

The football team's multi-year rate of 998 for the 2013-14 academic year tops all FBS programs and trails only FCS school Mercer. Rounding out the top 10, in order, are Dartmouth, Dayton, Yale, Northwestern, Duke, Michigan, Davidson and Georgetown.

APR, which was implemented in 2003, "holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term," says a UW release. The score is calculated by crediting each student-athlete receiving athletically related financial aid with one point for staying in school and one point for being academically eligible. A team's total number of points are then divided by the number of possible points and multiplied by 1,000.

This is the third consecutive year in which Wisconsin's football team garnered an APR Public Recognition Award, given to programs that finish among the top 10 percent in their sport. Only Boise State, Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Northwestern, Rutgers and Stanford join Wisconsin as having football programs that have accomplished the same feat.

Wisconsin's football team also joins its men's basketball team in posting an APR of at least 985. The only other schools to have football and men's basketball teams doing the same are Duke, Stanford and Michigan. Throwing men's hockey into the mix, Wisconsin is the only FBS school with at least a 985 APR in those three sports.

Ten of Wisconsin's 23 athletic teams recorded an APR of at least 990. Nineteen were at or above their respective sport averages.

Four schools were given 2015-16 postseason bans for not reaching the APR threshold of 930 in the latest report: Alcorn State, Florida A&M, Stetson and Central Arkansas.