OSU Graduation Rates Among The Worst In The FBS

The second installment of Sports Illustrated's "The Dirty Game" series details various ways in which the Oklahoma State University football program allegedly manipulated academic outcomes, so that numerous student athletes could remain eligible to play. 

The article concludes by pointing out that, despite all of the alleged misconduct, the overall academic performance of the football team ranks among the worst in the country. That conclusion is based on OSU's Academic Progress Rate (APR) score, a measure created a decade ago by the NCAA.

Generally speaking, the APR measures how well an institution is doing at keeping its scholar athletes academically eligible, and, ultimately, successfully graduating them. A perfect score is 1,000.

9/9/2013 Related Story: Former Member Of 'The Orange Pride' Talks About OSU Investigation

The most recent scores were released in June and are for the 2011-2012 school year. The APR for Oklahoma State's football program was 926. Only six of the 125 FBS Division I schools have lower scores, and OSU's APR is the lowest of all schools in the Big 12 conference.

By comparison, the 2011-2012 APR for the University of Oklahoma's football program was 960. Missouri – then still a member of the Big 12 – led the conference with a 982.

The problem for OSU, aside from being at the bottom, is that the NCAA recently decided that these APR scores had to be at a certain level, in order for schools to be able to participate in post-season bowl games and tournaments.

Beginning next year, the magic number will be 930.  And, since the score is actually an average of the last four years, OSU will have to do better than 930, in order to avoid falling below the threshold.

OSU men's basketball is in a similar position – it's latest APR score is 928, also below the cutoff for eligibility in post-season tournaments.

Other sports are doing much better, academically.  OSU's men's golf team has an Academic Progress Rate of 990 right now.  Softball scored 993 in 2011-2012.

The NCAA says that a 930 APR score translates to about a 50 percent graduation rate.

9/10/2013 Related Story: Sports Illustrated Releases First OSU Football Investigation Article