5/19/2020 football Edit

Arkansas football's APR takes a hit under Chad Morris

Chad Morris was in charge of the football team when it saw its APR score take a big hit. (Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports)

Andrew Hutchinson • HawgBeat

Managing Editor

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The Arkansas football team received a multiyear APR score of 962, the NCAA released Tuesday.

Although it is still comfortably above the required benchmark, that score is the Razorbacks’ lowest in four years and significantly lower than the program record set last year.

It also marks the first time since 2012-13 that Arkansas’ score was lower than the previous year, ending a five-year run in which it grew by 47 points.

That dramatic increase can be credited to former head coach Bret Bielema. He inherited a program with a 935 multiyear score, which was dangerously close to dipping below the 930 bench that would result in practice limitations, scholarship reductions and - potentially - a postseason ban.

Although he failed to put a consistently successful product on the field, Bielema worked wonders for Arkansas’ APR. Not only did he bring it back from the brink of penalties, but he helped the program post a record 982 score over his final four years.

Calculated using academic eligibility and retention of student-athletes, this year’s multiyear scores are based on the four academic years between 2015-16 and 2018-19. That includes the first year of Chad Morris’ tenure.

The 20-point drop from the previous year is likely due to the mass exodus of players Arkansas experienced under Morris. The Razorbacks saw 22 of 85 scholarship players leave the program with remaining eligibility during the 2018-19 academic year, with most of them doing so via transfer.

If those players didn’t leave in good academic standing, they counted against Arkansas’ APR score for the year. The result was a single-year score of 895, which new head coach Sam Pittman must improve upon to avoid future penalties.

The men’s basketball program at Arkansas also posted a low single-year score of 920 for 2018-19, but its four-year average of 958 - despite being the lowest of the UA’s 17 programs - was still above the benchmark.

After losing a scholarship in 2012-13 because of low APR scores, the program is just a couple years removed from a record 985 multiyear score.

Seven programs - women’s cross country, women’s golf, gymnastics, softball, swimming and diving, women’s tennis and volleyball - earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards last week, each posting perfect 1,000 multiyear scores. That is the most such awards Arkansas has ever had in a single year.

Here is a sport-by-sport breakdown of the Razorbacks’ multiyear APR scores (indoor and outdoor track are combined):

~Softball: 1,000

~Women’s cross country: 1,000

~Women’s golf: 1,000

~Gymnastics: 1,000

~Swimming and diving: 1,000

~Women’s tennis: 1,000

~Volleyball: 1,000

~Men’s tennis: 993

~Men’s golf: 985

~Soccer: 980

~Women’s track: 973

~Baseball: 971

~Men’s cross country: 969

~Women’s basketball: 965

~Men’s track: 963

~Football: 962

~Men’s basketball: 958