BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Southern University, in conjunction with the
NCAA, issued the following joint statement to address details surrounding the
academic inquiry and the current post-season ban for all athletic programs,
including the men's and women's basketball programs.
The NCAA staff continues to
work closely with Southern University to resolve issues with the data the school
submitted through the Academic Performance Program. Currently, all Southern
University athletics teams are ineligible for NCAA postseason opportunities
because the eligibility and retention data for its student-athletes are
incomplete and inaccurate.
The records in question are used by the NCAA
to determine the Academic Progress Rates for each team. Because Southern’s data
was deemed unusable, the school currently has no verified APRs for any of its
teams. Without accurate APRs, the Committee on Academic Performance, a
membership group that oversees the Academic Performance Program, cannot
determine if the teams meet the minimum academic standard for postseason
competition required of all Division I teams.
Southern was informed of its post-season
ineligibility status in December 2013. At this time, the administration was
required to notify its student-athletes of this status, and allow them the
opportunity to transfer at mid-year. Since this December notification,
Southern’s submissions have been incomplete or inaccurate at
deadline.
A significant amount of work must be completed
before NCAA postseason eligibility for Southern’s teams can be restored.
Therefore, it is not feasible for Southern’s winter sports to participate in
post-season competition. Both Southern’s administration and the NCAA staff are
now focused on assisting the institution with meeting its NCAA membership
requirements in time for spring sports to be restored to post-season
eligibility.
Southern will exhaust
every effort to comply in order to reverse the post season ban.
“The NCAA has informed us of the enormity of
the challenge before us, but we continue to work exhaustively in our efforts to
comply with their requests, and share in their goals to provide the best
institutional support for student athletes,” said William Broussard, athletics
director at Southern. “As stated in the initial press conference to announce the
post-season ineligibilities due to the ongoing data review, the NCAA has
partnered extensively with our coordinated, campus-wide effort to report data
from previous years accurately, perform and recommend corrections, and re-design
policies and procedures for reporting accurate data in the future.”
NCAA staff members began working closely with
Southern in March 2013 in an effort to help the school resolve its data issues.
Staff also expedited internal deadlines and continues to work on a compressed
timeline in all matters related to the school’s athletic teams.
“Our staff is committed to working with
Southern on its data issues,” said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for
academic and membership affairs. “We hope the result of this collaboration is a
fully-functioning, robust system of tracking retention and eligibility on
Southern’s campus, to help student-athletes achieve academically and get the
support they need to succeed.”
The data review process is a collaborative one
that requires a school to supply quality, accurate documentation that follows
the school’s internal policies and procedures. Often, these requirements are not
met initially, and deadlines and requests must be revised to allow the school
additional time to fulfill the requests fully and accurately. However, unusable
data status, as determined by the membership body that oversees the process,
does not occur frequently .
One of the cornerstones of the Academic
Performance Program is its reliance on the correct and complete data submitted
by each school. Without accurate data from the schools, the system of
recognition for high achievers and penalties for low achievers
suffers.
Beginning in 2007, the Committee on Academic
Performance requested the staff review the data of all Division I schools to
ensure data are accurate and complete. Southern’s data challenges were
discovered through such a review. The staff conducts intensive reviews of
between 30 and 40 schools per year and each school provides supporting
documentation when requested. Within the next three years, all Division I
schools will have participated in the review process.
COURTESY SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
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