Ole Miss Athletics continues to soar in the classroom, breaking the department record for highest APR score yet again with a multi-year average of 992 in the annual APR release by the NCAA on Tuesday.
The APR data release resumed for 2020-21 for the first time since 2019-20 after a one-year hiatus last year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This spring, the Division I Board of Directors voted to continue to suspend APR penalties for an additional year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, it supported the public release of the APR data.
Ole Miss recorded a massive improvement in its single-year APR score for the 2020-21 school year, jumping up 10 points over the last release to 996 in this latest release. Additionally, Ole Miss’ new record multi-year average of 992 sits at plus-eight over the national average of 984, while its women’s multi-year average of 994 ranks plus-four over the national women’s average (990) and its men’s mark of 990 at plus-10 over the national men’s average (980).
“The University of Mississippi is a special place for our student-athletes to pursue their college education, and these APR numbers speak to that,” said Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development Dr. Bob Baker. “We are all very proud of these numbers and how our student-athletes consistently prioritize their academic goals.”
The newest APR numbers for Ole Miss also stack up well against the SEC. The Rebels lead or are tied for the SEC lead in multi-year APR in seven different sports – women’s cross country, football, women’s golf, men’s golf, rifle, soccer and women’s track & field. Five of those teams – women’s cross country, women’s golf, men’s golf, rifle, soccer – all posted perfect multi-year APR scores of 1,000. It was the first perfect scores in the program history of women’s cross country, rifle and soccer, while it was the fifth in a row for men’s golf and third in a row for women’s golf.
The Ole Miss football team notched a new program record multi-year APR score of 999, a two-point improvement over its previous best of 997 in the last release in 2020 and its sixth consecutive multi-year improvement. Furthermore, Ole Miss stands tied with Clemson for the FBS lead and ranks only behind FCS school Columbia (1,000) in all of Division I college football. Ole Miss ended up +30 over the FBS average and +27 over the SEC average.
Of the 16 sports at Ole Miss, 12 posted perfect single-season scores of 1,000: men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, rifle, soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and men’s track & field.
The APR, created to provide more of a real-time measurement of academic success than graduation rates offer, is a team-based metric where scholarship student-athletes earn one point each term for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Schools that don’t offer scholarships track their recruited student-athletes.
Every Division I sports team submits data to have its Academic Progress Rate calculated each academic year. The NCAA reports both single-year rates and four-year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member-provided data. APRs for each team and those receiving sanctions are available online through the NCAA’s searchable database.
Ole Miss Athletics Multi-Year APR
992 – Program Record
Ole Miss Athletics Single-Year APR
996
Ole Miss Athletics Multi-Year APR, By Gender*
Women: 995
Men: 990
* Excludes Rifle, which is a co-ed sport nationally
Ole Miss Perfect Multi-Year APR Scores (5)
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Rifle
Soccer
Ole Miss Perfect Single-Year APR Scores (12)
Men’s Basketball
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Cross Country
Women’s Cross Country
Football
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Rifle
Soccer
Men’s Tennis
Women’s Tennis
Men’s Track & Field
FedEx Student-Athlete Success Center and Ole Miss Student-Athlete Development Mission
The mission of the FedEx Student-Athlete Success Center is to promote academic and personal achievement through quality developmental and need-based programs designed to empower and holistically develop student-athletes for life after collegiate athletics.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
