Men's Lacrosse Fares Well in NCAA's Latest APR Study

The NCAA released its latest iteration of the APR -- "Academic Progress Report," not "Anti-People Report" -- and there is, once again, good news: No Division I men's lacrosse team is taking a penalty for failing to progress academically (which, as academic progress goes, is a good thing). The even better news? Three schools -- Bucknell, Duke, and Notre Dame -- earned perfect APR scores. (Four schools earned the distinction last year.)

Compared to its peers, men's lacrosse did well: Finishing 12th among the 20 delineated sports -- a few sports, like football, are counted twice -- in four-year APR average (976), just a hair above the sports 975 mark achieved in the last cycle. Continuing a trend, men's lacrosse continues to move in the right direction in its average APR: From a single-year low of 973 in 2007-2008, men's lacrosse earned a 980 in the 2013-2014 cohort (its best score since generating the same value in 2011-2012) and hasn't scored under a 977 in the last three cohorts examined. The 980 that men's lacrosse fostered in the 2013-2014 cohort is the third highest among 13 examined men's sports (although, the sport's improvement in APR rank since the 2007-2008 cohort trails many other sports).

Eligibility rate in men's lacrosse slightly improved over the last analyzed group and the sport's score in that metric in the 2013-2014 cohort fell behind only two men's sports -- golf and ice hockey. The retention rate in men's lacrosse, however, has remained middling since the 2007-2008 cohort, but it's still in the fat middle of examined sports.

There are some other notable aspects to the various reports:

• For the 2013-2014 cohort, Division I men's lacrosse saw 0.9% of its constituency made up of two-year college transfers (this is the third lowest among men's sports); 3.7 percent of its transfers went from four-year schools to other four-year schools (this is sixth lowest among men's sports). These were in line with the 2012-2013 cohort, but transfers still comprise a very small percentage of Division I rosters.
• No team put up lower than a 930 in this multi-year period, the absolute baseline for achievement without potentially creating problems with penalties and postseason bans. VMI, which was at a 930 in last year's examination and the only Division I men's lacrosse school to sit on the cusp of the APR's cutoff point, improved to a 946 this year.