The Ever Changing “APR”
Posted September 8, 2008
In our last issue, the topic of APR and your contract was discussed. We advised caution if APR was discussed in contract negotiations because no one knows exactly how the APR is going to affect teams or their respective universities. Well, the APR is currently going through transition and there may be more changes down the road. We, therefore, advise even greater caution if APR is mentioned during negotiations.
Since our last issue, the Division I Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) has eased the standards of the APR by forgiving the retention point for athletes who leave the institution to pursue professional sports, or who leave for reasons beyond their control, as long as they earn their eligibility point. Thus, as long as a student is academically eligible to play for a team, the team will not lose any APR points if that student leaves for one of the foregoing reasons.
The CAP is now considering forgiving the retention point in all transfer situations. There is, however, considerable resistance from many in the NCAA, who say this will weaken the reform that the APR was meant to promote. Many of those opposed to forgiving the retention point for all transfer situations want to go a step further and change the APR back to its original format. This would mean no forgiveness in any transfer situation.
Many times a university or a coach will want to include academic minimums or incentives into an employment contract. Universities may want to make sure academic standards are upheld and coaches may want to be compensated if they graduate players at a higher than average rate or have an exceptional team GPA. That said, APR should be avoided in negotiations until: 1) the system is finalized, and; 2) the finalized system has had an opportunity to show how it will affect teams and their universities.
