NCAA rewarding Southern with $900K grant evidence it has 'confidence in Southern University athletics,' Banks says

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- It wasn’t that long ago that Southern’s athletic program found itself squarely on the NCAA’s naughty list as a result of letting its academics slide.

Southern has been making strides to put itself back on the nice list since the NCAA slammed it with APR-related sanctions, and earlier this week it was one of three schools rewarded with nearly $1 million in grant money over a three-year span through the NCAA Accelerating Academic Success Program.

“I think it shows that the NCAA is now having confidence in Southern University athletics,” said Southern athletic director Roman Banks. “I think they’ve seen, and I know they have documented, the great turnaround we had at the university.”

The program has been in place since 2012. Only non-FBS schools in the bottom 10 percent of financial resources are eligible to apply.

Southern was one of three schools to receive a comprehensive, or multi-year, grant. Six other schools received single year grants.

Each year, Southern will receive $300,000 — the maximum amount — from the NCAA for a total of $900,000 in grant money. Southern is required to match 25 percent of the funding in the first year, 50 percent in the second year and 75 percent in the third year.

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