SFA football, basketball teams have already taken penalties

SFA is already in compliance with penalties levied at two sports programs as the result of the NCAA's 2006-2007 Academic Progress Rate, released by the NCAA Tuesday.

SFA's football and women's basketball programs were among sports that received penalties.

According to the report, SFA scored a 903 APR in football and a 923 in women's basketball.

The passing APR is 925.

Retention of athletes within a program and an athlete's academic standing determine the APR, which the NCAA began requiring all of its institutions to submit four years ago.

SFA's penalties in football were the reduction of fewer than three scholarships, to 60.32 total scholarships, down from 63.

The women's basketball program's had the reduction of one scholarship, from 15 to 14.

SFA's football program was also struck with a conditional penalty that stemmed its failure to come into complete compliance with a 2005 APR report.

According to athletic director Robert Hill, SFA is already in compliance with the NCAA's penalty summary. He said the school realized its shortfalls in the fall, when the report was submitted to the NCAA and that all of SFA's sports are eligible to have a full allotment of scholarships for the fall semester.

Hill said the football program's APR has suffered the last four years, largely because of having three different head coaches during that time.

He said the women's basketball progam suffered from having several players leaving the program a few years back.

"Retention and graduation are the big things with the NCAA's APR," Hill said. "Having three head coaches in four years certainly hurt us. Our numbers are getting better every year, though. We just need some stability on the football side."

SFA's APR numbers for all sports

Men sports

Baseball, 895 (Program is in third season)

Basketball, 931

Cross country, 972

Football, 903

Golf, 981

Indoor track, 964

Outdoor track, 954

Women

Basketball, 923

Cross country, 944

Soccer, 955

Softball, 955

Tennis, 993

Indoor track, 957

Outdoor track, 951

Volleyball, 1000