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Posted on Thu, Jun 14, 2012 : 11:35 a.m.

Michigan men's and women's basketball among 4 programs to earn APR Public Recognition Awards

By Nick Baumgardner

The Michigan men's and women's basketball programs sit near the head of the class.

At least in the NCAA eyes.

Michigan's men's and women's hoops squads, along with the school's men's and women's tennis teams, earned Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards on Thursday, per an NCAA release.

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Michigan's men's basketball team, along with its women's basketball, women's tennis and men's tennis teams, earned APR Public Recognition awards Thursday.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Each year, the NCAA honors teams that have earned a multiyear APR score inside the top 10 percent of their sport.

This year's award marks the first ever for the Michigan basketball program. The honor has been bestowed upon programs since the 2004-05 athletic campaign.

For the women's basketball program, 2010-11 award marks the third consecutive season the team has earned the honor. The women's tennis program has now earned seven straight awards, while the men's tennis team has now received the award for three straight academic seasons.

The department's four APR Public Recognition Awards is down two from a year ago, when women's tennis, women's basketball, men's tennis, men's gymnastics, men's golf and baseball captured the honor.

The Michigan football program has never received the honor.

The only other Big Ten men's basketball program to earn the honor this year was Purdue. Ohio State and Northwestern were the only two Big Ten football programs to earn the honor for the honor in 2010-11.

The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is defined by the NCAA as "a term-by-term measure of eligibility and retention for Division I student-athletes that was developed as an early indicator of eventual graduation rates."

Failure to maintain a score of 925 can result in the loss of scholarships or further sanctions from the NCAA.

The full NCAA APR report is scheduled to be released on June 20.

Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.

Comments

Sparky79

Fri, Jun 15, 2012 : 6:57 p.m.

Why the jab at the football team? Seeing as only four teams are being recognized, why not mention all the other Michigan teams that aren't receiving the honor? Or better yet, just focus the attention on those who are being honored because they deserve it? To randomly throw in there that the football team has never received the honor seems very unnecessary.