Bradley APR Success Among Nation's Best

Bradley Athletics Received a Department Record Nine NCAA APR Public Recognition Awards Wednesday

NCAA APR Public Recognition Announcement

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications General 5/1/2019 2:00:00 PM

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – While enjoying its most competitive year across the board in athletics competition in the department's modern era, the Bradley University Department of Athletics has received a school-record nine NCAA APR Public Recognition Awards and rates among the nation's top five departments in Academic Progress Rate, according to the national office's Academic Performance Program public recognition announcement Wednesday afternoon.

Of the 13 NCAA Division I sports sponsored by Bradley (indoor and outdoor track are counted together for APR purposes), nine received NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking among the top 10 percent nationally in each sport: Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Men's Golf, Men's Soccer, Women's Tennis, Men's Track, Women's Track. With 69.2 percent of its teams qualifying for NCAA Public Recognition Awards, Bradley is tied for fifth nationally in percentage of teams honored, joining Villanova (77%), Columbia (75%), Holy Cross (75%), Lehigh (70%) and Dartmouth (69%).

"I applaud our student-athletes, coaches and staff for their continued standard of excellence," said Dr. Chris Reynolds, Bradley Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics. "While the NCAA Public Recognition Awards are further evidence of the academic success of our student-athletes, we continue to raise the bar in the pursuit of excellence in academic achievement, athletic competition and community engagement and I remain proud of all that the Braves have accomplished."

Bradley's Men's Basketball, Men's Cross Country and Women's Cross Country teams also won MVC Championships in 2018-19, while Women's Tennis and Men's Indoor Track each enjoyed the best competitive season in each respective sport's history. Bradley Men's Basketball, Soccer and Men's Track were the only Missouri Valley Conference teams in those three sports to receive NCAA Public Recognition Awards Wednesday.

Bradley's nine teams to receive NCAA APR Public Recognition are the most of any school in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference – Northern Iowa and Valparaiso tied for second, each with seven. Bradley also ranked fourth among the 43 NCAA Division I institutions in Illinois and the five neighboring states of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin, trailing only Notre Dame (14), Northwestern (13) and Saint Louis (10). The 69 percent of Bradley teams recognized, however, was tops in the six-state region: Bradley (.692), Northwestern (.684), Notre Dame (.636) and Saint Louis (.625).

Each year, the NCAA honors selected NCAA Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multiyear NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport. This year's release will again include recognition in the sport of football by subdivision (i.e., Football Bowl Subdivision and NCAA Football Championship Subdivision).

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.

While Bradley student-athletes continue to excel academically, the Braves also have enjoyed their most successful collective year of competition since Bradley University began intercollegiate athletics sponsorship of women's sports in the late 1970's. In addition to the three Valley titles, Volleyball earned an automatic bid to the National Invitation Volleyball Championship for its first-ever postseason berth; Bradley Soccer enjoyed the second unbeaten (6-0-4) non-conference season in program history; Men's Indoor Track's distance-centric team scored a program-record 86 points at the 2019 MVC Indoor Track Championship; Women's Basketball won 20 games for just the third time in program history; Women's Tennis enjoyed its best overall (16-8) and conference (4-1) season in program history; Baseball is coming off its best calendar month (15-3 in April) in 50 years; and Softball is chasing a top three seed for next week's MVC Softball Championship, which it will host at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

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