The new policy will begin in the 2007-2008 academic year and the first four-year period measured would be from 2003-4 to 2006-7. Currently, teams with an APR below 925 in any year can lose up to 10 percent of the scholarships they may award.A team can remove itself from consideration of historical penalties by improving its APR, if the academic performance is favorable compared to non-athletes at the same institution, or if an institution’s per-capita educational expenses are significantly lower than those of other institutions in Division I.
Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford and chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Progress, told the Chronicle of Higher Education (link here), “These are the most severe penalties that institutions and teams can incur. These are penalties for the worst of the worst.” And, NCAA president Myles Brand noted that the new penalties were being implemented to “accurately identify those teams that are consistently underperforming and prompts them to attain a higher level of academic achievement.