April 24, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Ivy League student-athletes again have the nation's best records in the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR) ratings for enrollment throughout the 2003-04 through 2006-07 academic years, which the NCAA issued today. For the second straight year, Brown finished in the top five nationally, ranking third in the nation out of 329 Division I schools with 21 sports being honored by the NCAA.

The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members' continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation (The APR awards two points each term to student-athletes who meet academic-eligibility standards and who remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time, divided by the total points possible.)

The NCAA "commends" teams that have APR scores in the top 10% within their sport, with the minimum necessary score ranging from 975 to a perfect mark of 1000 depending on the range of team scores within that sport. A total of 150 Ivy League teams were "commended" -- at least one in each of the 35 NCAA sports in which at least one Ivy team competes -- for an average of 18.75 teams per school.

Ivy teams comprised 21% of the 712 teams honored from across 191 Division I colleges and universities (138 schools had no commended teams). The average of 18.75 teams at each of the eight Ivy schools is more than two-thirds more than the next best conference average (11), and more than the best score of any non-Ivy individual school.

More than three-fifths (62.8%) of the total of 239 Ivy teams in NCAA-sponsored sports were recognized. The Ivy League is the only conference to have commendations for all of its football teams; seven of the eight Ivy teams were recognized in 5 additional sports and 6 Ivy teams were recognized in 6 more sports.

The Ivy League swept the top six rankings nationally, led by Yale with 28 honored teams; every Ivy school was in the top 20 [Yale (28, 1st), Dartmouth (24, 2nd), Brown (21, 3rd), Penn (20, 4th), Princeton (19, 5th), Harvard (18, 6th), Cornell (11, t-16th), and Columbia (9, 20th)].

Number of Teams Receiving Public Recognition (Top-10)

1. Yale 28

2. Dartmouth 24

3. Brown 21

4. Penn 20

5. Princeton 19

6. Harvard 18

7. Bucknell 17

T8. Lehigh 15

T8. Holy Cross 15

10. Colgate 13