Stephen F. Austin baseball has been banned from the 2021 NCAA tournament due to violations with the Academic Progress Report. They were not the only team banned at the school as the football team will not be eligible in 2020-2021 season and Men’s Basketball in 2021-2022. A statement from Stephen F. Austin was released stating the following:
Today, the NCAA publicly released Academic Progress Report (APR) scores for all Division I athletic programs, including Stephen F. Austin. These four-year cohort APR scores began with the 2015-2016 academic year. As noted in its release, three SFA sports programs (men’s basketball, football and baseball) failed to meet the minimum four-year cohort APR score of 930 needed to avoid penalties. As a result, these programs must serve the Level I APR penalties, which include a reduction in countable practice hours and a one-year postseason ban. The University has been approved to delay the men’s basketball postseason ban until the 2021-22 season, while football and baseball will serve their bans during the 2020-21 academic year.
Beginning in 2013, an athletics department administrative error in the academic certification process resulted in the miscalculation of SFA’s reported APR scores. Once the administrative error was identified and corrected, the APR scores of these three programs fell below the 930 threshold. Procedures are now in place to prevent a reoccurrence of the error.
The athletics department has been focused on academic progress and is proud of its current student athletes who collectively earned a 3.21 GPA for the spring semester.
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