The National Collegiate Athletic Association recently banned 36 college sports teams from postseason play during the 2014-15 academic year because of poor performance on the association’s academic progress rate (APR). The APR is a measure of the percentage of student athletes who remain in school and remain academically eligible to participate in athletic competition.
Historically Black colleges and universities are among what the NCAA labels as “limited resource schools.” These schools are given more leeway than other colleges and universities as to the stipulated cutoff in APR rates for eligibility for postseason play.
Nevertheless, 15 of the 36 teams facing postseason bans are from historically Black colleges and universities. Six HBCUs are banned from postseason play in football: Alabama State University, Florida A&M University, Mississippi Valley State University, Prairie View A&M University, Savannah State University, and the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The only women’s team facing a postseason ban is the lacrosse team at Howard University.
Many other teams at HBCUs face penalties such as reductions in practice time. Eighteen of the 57 teams receiving penalties are at HBCUs.
