Some Louisiana schools facing academic sanctions

(AP) – The Southern University football team; Louisiana-Lafayette and Centenary basketball teams; and New Orleans and Centenary baseball squads all could face NCAA postseason bans if they do not improve the rate at which players either graduate or leave school in good academic standing.

The NCAA last Tuesday released its annual Academic Progress Rate, which measures eligibility and retention of student athletes for every program at every Division I school.

Teams that scored below a 925 – the equivalent of a 60 percent graduation success rate under the NCAA’s formula – generally receive warning letters at a minimum.

They could also face scholarship penalties and reductions of practice time, depending on how low their scores are and how many years in a row they’ve missed the national benchmark.

Teams that have scored less than 900 in two consecutive years must improve now. A third consecutive score below 900 would keep them out of NCAA tournaments in 2009-10, and a fourth straight year on the list could lead to having Division I status revoked.

The New Orleans baseball team, for example, scored 855 on the latest report, the second straight year below 900. The team is losing two scholarships over the next two years, while practice time will drop from six days a week to five.

University of New Orleans spokesman Rob Broussard said the baseball team’s APR score suffered after Hurricane Katrina, when several players dropped out of school or transferred.

“A lot of our data came from the Katrina years,” Broussard said. “Since then we’ve added a full-time person dedicated to academics and we’ll also have new facilities. We’re kind of seeing the results of problems during and right after the storm.”

Southern football scored 869 in the latest NCAA academic progress report. At Centenary, the basketball team scored 823 and baseball team 858. The Louisiana-Lafayette basketball team scored 839.

The LSU baseball team, with a score of 908, has been penalized with minor scholarship losses for falling below the 925 benchmark, but because its score is above 900, the team is not yet in any danger of punishment as severe as being banned from postseason play.

Other teams in the state that face possible scholarship losses are Louisiana Tech men’s basketball, Centenary men’s soccer and Louisiana-Lafayette women’s tennis.

Programs receiving warning letters were: McNeese State baseball and men’s golf; Louisiana Tech men’s indoor and outdoor track; Louisiana-Monroe indoor track, outdoor track and women’s volleyball; and Northwestern State men’s outdoor track.

By contrast, all eight of Tulane’s Division I teams scored well above national averages, with several getting a perfect score of 1,000.