April 27, 2007

Duquesne University was one of 51 schools to have five or more athletics programs recognized by the NCAA for their latest Academic Progress Rate scores. The DU men's outdoor track, men's soccer, men's swimming, wrestling and women's cross country teams all posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards are part of the broad Division I academic reform effort.

Duquesne's five team honorees - in addition to placing DU in the top 15 percent of all Division I colleges and universities - ranked tied for fourth among the 14 schools in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Wrestling was one of 10 programs honored, men's swimming was one of 15, men' soccer was one of 21, men's outdoor track was one of 26 and women's cross country was one of 49 honored.

"Academic achievement has always been the focus and foundation of the athletics programs at Duquesne," said Director of Athletics Greg Amodio. "It is a great honor to have five teams recognized by the NCAA. We look for that number to improve as we move forward."

The 839 teams receiving awards this year represent 217 Division I colleges and universities, or two-thirds of the 326 institutions that compete in NCAA Division I athletics. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 975 to a perfect 1,000, said NCAA President Myles Brand.

"These teams prove once again that student-athletes are students first, and many of them are excellent students," Brand said. "I want to personally congratulate these teams and their student-athletes who are working hard in their sport and in the classroom and setting a great example for all students."

Of the teams receiving awards for their latest academic performance are 366 men's and mixed teams and 473 women's teams. The men's sports with the highest number of teams garnering public recognition are golf (51), cross country (49) and tennis (40). The women's sports with the highest number of teams receiving awards are tennis (64), volleyball (54) and golf (52).

Fordham led the Atlantic 10 in the number of high-performing squads, with nine teams receiving awards. Xavier had eight teams receiving awards, followed by Dayton (7), Duquesne (5) and Saint Louis (5). Yale University of the Ivy League had 28 teams receive public recognition awards, the most of any Division I college or university.

Last year, a total of 1,048 teams were recognized. There are fewer awards this year than last year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores.

Multi-year APR scores for all 6,110 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced Wednesday (May 2). The announcement also will include immediate and historical penalties for low-performing teams.

NCAA DIVISION I SCHOOLS WITH FIVE OR MORE TEAMS HONORED (51 of 326 competing institutions)

Boston College
Brown
Bucknell
Butler
Colgate
Columbia
Cornell
Creighton
Dartmouth
Davidson
Dayton
Delaware
Duke
DUQUESNE
Fairfield
Fordham
Furman
Georgetown
Gonzaga
Harvard
Holy Cross
James Madison
Lafayette
Lehigh
Long Island
Loyola, Md.
Marist
Marquette
Miami, Ohio
Michigan
Navy
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Penn
Penn State
Princeton
Rice
Saint Louis
Samford
Stanford
William & Mary
Virginia
Wisconsin
Valparaiso
Villanova
Wake Forest
Western Michigan
Xavier
Yale