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PETITION
Please
sign our petition to save dropped OU sports. Click
here. If
your current circumstances or position with Ohio University do not require
anonymity, we
request that you sign with your name rather than as "Anonymous"
as some have. Thank you and thanks to the Women's Lacrosse blog
for setting up this petition.
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CONTACT FOR THIS SITE: SaveOUSports ATgmailDOTcom
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WHAT KIND OF STUDENTS ARE
THE DROPPED STUDENT ATHLETES?
Dropped teams prominent in academic
honors
HOW SERIOUS ARE OU'S STUDENT ATHLETES
ABOUT THEIR EDUCATIONS? HERE IS A PARTIAL ANSWER
See also
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
Ohio
Athletics Scores High on Latest GSR Report
Bobcats
above national average in graduation ratings
Oct. 5,
2006
ATHENS, Ohio
- According to the latest figures released by the NCAA, Ohio University
student-athletes who entered school between 1996 and 1999 posted a Graduation
Success Rate (GSR) of 82 percent. The national Division I institutional average
is 77 percent.
Of Ohio's
16 sport programs, 10 posted rates of 88 percent or better, and 13 had GSR
scores of at least 75 percent.
Four programs -- men's and women's golf,
field hockey and women's lacrosse -- boasted perfect GSR marks of 100
percent. Other top performers included women's soccer (95), women's swimming
& diving (95), women's cross country & track (92), women's basketball
(89), volleyball (89) and men's swimming & diving (88).
"The
education, and ultimately the graduation, of our student-athletes is and will
continue to be the top priority for Ohio Athletics," said Director of
Athletics Kirby
Hocutt. "The effort put forth by our former student-athletes, coaches
and academic support staff is to be commended. It is our goal to not only
maintain the already high standards at this institution, but also improve upon
them."
[By dropping teams that raise the GSR? Get the Math Department to help
you with this one.]
The men's
basketball team posted a GSR score of 83 percent, which ranked first in the
Mid-American Conference. The Bobcat football team's mark of 76 percent was
third-best in the MAC and 11 percentage points higher than the national average
for football.
[11 percentage points higher? Only 65 percent of student football
players graduate nationwide? That is a low bar against which to
measure your own success. Why not 100%? Don't these young people
deserve degrees after working hard every day of the year (you must train all
year -- in EVERY sport -- to stay in the kind of condition it takes to compete
at the Division One level) to bring money into their universities?]
[Many of
us love Bobcat Football. We were happy with this year's
team's success but it should not come at the expense of
other athletes who also add luster to OU and make it attractive to students
with strong academic credentials and demonstrated commitment to sports.]
The GSR was
developed as a more accurate alternative to the federal methodology. The federal
rate does not credit institutions for incoming transfers who graduate, and it
does not remove from the calculation transfers who leave the institution in good
academic standing. The NCAA estimates that the GSR captures about 35 percent
more students than the federal method, making it a more accurate portrayal of
academic success among student-athletes.
Bobcats
Excel Academically During Spring Quarter
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
Eleven
teams finish with GPA above 3.0
July 10,
2006
ATHENS,
Ohio - The Ohio
athletic department has announced that 11 of its sport programs finished with
team grade-point-averages above 3.0 during the Spring Quarter, while 81
student-athletes were named to the Dean's List.
The women's
cross country team posted a 3.57 GPA during the Spring Quarter, best among
Ohio's 20 sport programs. The men's cross country squad led all Bobcat men's
teams with a 3.29 mark. Other programs to boast a GPA greater than 3.0 include
women's swimming & diving (3.34), women's golf (3.29), field hockey (3.25),
soccer (3.23), men's swimming & diving (3.22), lacrosse (3.19),
volleyball (3.15), softball (3.13) and men's golf (3.08).
The women's
cross country program also led the way with 13 of its 23 members earning Dean's
List honors. Soccer and men's swimming & diving also had double-digit
Dean's List recognitions with 11 and 10, respectively
Soccer had 14
of its 26 roster members finish with a GPA of 3.5 or higher during the Spring
Quarter, the highest mark in the department, while football had 31 of its
members post a mark of 3.0 or better.
Women's
cross country won the cumulative GPA title for the 2005-06 academic year with a
3.47 mark while golf took the top spot on the men's side with a 3.25 GPA. Also
achieving a GPA greater than 3.0 over the course of the entire year include soccer
(3.37), softball (3.29), volleyball (3.19), women's swimming & diving
(3.18), lacrosse (3.17), men's cross country (3.15), field hockey (3.12)
and men's swimming & diving (3.11).
Sixty-Seven
Bobcats Earn Degrees From Ohio
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
Spring
Commencement Held June 10
June 20,
2006
ATHENS,
Ohio - With Ohio
University's undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Saturday, June 10 drawing
the academic careers of many to a close, Ohio athletics has announced that 67
student-athletes will complete their undergraduate degrees during 2005-06.
The 2006
class featured two All-Americans in football's Dion
Byrum and volleyball's Julia
Winkfield, two Mid-American Conference Players of the Year in field hockey's
Lindsay
Rothenberger and Winkfield, and a Major League Baseball draft pick in Derek
Witt. The list of graduates also includes eight all-conference competitors
and five academic all-league honorees.
"I
congratulate each one of these 67 graduates," Ohio Director of Athletics
Kirby
Hocutt said. "Their academic accomplishments are the result of
tremendous focus and balance between classwork and competition. We are extremely
proud of these young men and women."
Seventeen of
Ohio's 20 athletic programs had student-athletes complete their degree
requirements during the 2005-06 academic year. The graduating class is made up
of representatives from 17 different states, including 33 Ohio natives.
Of the 67 to
graduate during this past academic year, four finished their credits during the
Fall Quarter, eight completed their degrees in the Winter Quarter, 48 finished
during the Spring Quarter and seven are on track to draw their academic careers
to an end during the Summer Quarter.
Ohio's Sweet
16 volleyball squad saw both of its seniors complete their degrees this past
year, while all four of the seniors on the Bobcat men's basketball squad that
advanced to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament will wrap up their academic
careers by the end of the summer. Lacrosse and wrestling also saw all of their
2006 seniors complete their degree requirements.
Football's
Shane
Yates and baseball's Jon
Vondrell have completed their undergraduate degrees, but plan on returning
to their respective programs next year to complete their athletic eligibility
and enter graduate school.
NCAA
Announces Updated Academic Progress Report
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
Ohio
Athletics' academic progress scores at or above the national average
Aug. 31,
2005
ATHENS,
Ohio - The NCAA has
released its updated Academic Progress Rate information, and Ohio University
has improved its 2003-04 APR score from 951 to 959. The Bobcats' total is above
the national Division I average of 950.
The new
calculations are based on the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance's decision
to adjust the APR formula for schools with academic calendars based on quarters
instead of semesters.
Ohio's
Eligibility/Graduation score also increased to 956 from 941.
The Retention
score remained at 961. All three scores are at or above the national Division I
average.
"Ohio
Athletics remains committed to supporting the academic aspirations of all of our
student-athletes, as well as complying with the new NCAA Academic Reform
legislation," Ohio Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said. "I applaud
our student-athletes, coaches and academic support staff for their continued
focus on academic excellence."
The Bobcat
football program had one of the biggest differences, raising its total from 919
to 936. All 20 Ohio programs are now above the NCAA cut-line of 925. Teams and
institutions with an APR of less than 925 are subject to what the NCAA labels
contemporaneous penalties, which include financial aid restrictions.
The men's
swimming & diving team's score jumped from 944 to 963, while the women's
indoor track (938 to 958) and women's outdoor track (943 to 962) teams also had
their scores significantly improved.
"We are
very pleased that the NCAA's technical advisory group and the Committee on
Academic Performance have responded positively to our comments suggesting that
the previous statistical adjustment decreased scores more than was
appropriate," Ohio Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Student
Services Jennifer Stiles said. "The higher APR scores resulting from the
revised formula support that position, and we believe that the new method offers
a more accurate reflection of what is actually happening on our campus."
The
Academic Progress Rate was developed by the NCAA as a way to encourage academic
performance of all student-athletes on all sports teams, reward institutions and
teams that achieve academic success, and penalize those schools and teams
that have a history of academic underachievement. The APR calculates an
individual institution's level of academic achievement within its athletic
program. Based upon the key factors of athletics eligibility and retention,
these elements yield a numerical gauge of a programs' academic performance that
can be compared to companion sports within a single program, against conference
competitors or to national norms.
From OU Bobcats website: Women's Lacrosse section.
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
Jan. 16,
2007
ATHENS,
Ohio - The Ohio women's lacrosse team used their day off from school on Martin
Luther King Jr. Day to volunteer for a local community service project.
The Bobcats
participated in Dream Camp, an event put on by the staff and volunteers of
Sojourners Care Network. The project consists of a day camp for families who
needed a place for their young children to go on their day off from school.
The Dream
Camp was open to any Vinton County child in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Volunteers worked with the children doing arts and crafts, physical activities,
and other activities educating kids on Martin Luther King Jr.
The
Bobcats are currently in preparation for their 2007 season which begins on Feb.
16 at Lehigh.
July 25, 2006
[Bold type emphasis, aside from paragraph
headings, inserted by SaveOUSports.Org]
ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio lacrosse team had 18 of its 27 players named to the American Lacrosse Conference Academic Honor Roll for posting at least a 3.0 grade point average during the 2005-06 academic year.
The Bobcats named to the honor roll were Jen Ator (Hudson, Ohio), Allison Brennan (Annandale, Va.), Kim Cherneski (Timonium, Md.), Amanda Diehl (Westminster, Md.), Devon Dow (Potomac, Md.), Kari Fasick
(Marriottsville, Md.), Jessica Kazaks (Patchogue, N.Y.), Melanie Klein (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jayme Levy (Reistertown, Md.), Kathleen Macari (Huntington, N.Y.), Lindsey Marshall (Hilliard, Ohio), Colleen Nevin (Hampstead, Md.), Sarah Peterson (Hudson, Ohio), Meredith Post (Cincinnati, Ohio), Katie Smith
(Ohsweken, Ontario), Tiffany Smith (Massapequa, N.Y.), Ashley Weed (Shaker Heights, Ohio) and Kelley Windle (Columbus, Ohio).
The individual awards add to the list of academic honors for Ohio. The Bobcats were named a 2006 Academic Honor Squad by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association for having a team grade-point average of higher than 3.0, and placed two players, Brennan and Weed, on the IWLCA Academic Honor Roll.
By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor
Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
Ohio
University's student athletes scored some impressive points earlier this week,
but they didn't do it on any court or field.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Monday released reports on part
of its new method for grading university athletic departments for the academic
success or failure of their student athletes. OU met all of the standards,
finishing above many universities in its conference and in Ohio.
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a new measurement for studying academics at
universities. It involves several factors, but basically looks at whether
students on scholarship are academically eligible to compete each grading period
and remain in school.
Jennifer Stiles, associate athletics director for compliance and student
services at OU, explained during a press conference on Monday that the former
measurement method penalized universities when students transferred out. In
addition, she said, it did not count students who transferred in or were not
eligible to participate during their freshman years of college.
OU Athletics Director Thomas Boeh said that up till now, student-athletes who
did not qualify academically coming out of high school never counted during
their careers in the NCAA's standards. This meant that while some athletic
programs may have looked good, they might have had several student athletes not
doing well academically but who didn't show up in the statistics. This new
method counts every student on athletic scholarship, Boeh said.
The new method looks at each sport at a university, and assigns two points per
quarter (or semester) for each student on an athletic scholarship. One point is
for remaining eligible, and one point is for remaining in school, Stiles said.
At OU, each student athlete can earn up to six points in an academic year. The
NCAA divides the total number of points for each sport by the total number of
possible points, and then multiplies that number by 1,000 and comes up with the
point system for the university.
The NCAA complicates the system by taking some points away from schools such as
OU that are on the quarter system, Stiles said. The reasoning is that schools on
semesters only have two grading periods in an academic year, and so each grading
period has more influence on its point system.
Stiles said it's not fair to take points away from the quarter system, though,
and she and others are asking the NCAA to change this.
Stiles said that the NCAA set a level of 925 as the mark that schools must
exceed in all sports or risk losing scholarships. OU had an institutional rate
of 951 and was above the 925 rate in all sports except for football, Stiles
said. In football, OU had a score of 919.
For football, she said that OU was actually above the 925 mark, but its score
was lowered when the conversion factor for quarter schools was factored in. The
NCAA, however, set up a "confidence boundary" for sports to achieve
just below the 925 mark where they would not be penalized. The OU football score
of 919 falls within the confidence boundary, so OU would not be penalized this
year if the NCAA was penalizing schools, Stiles said. The NCAA will begin
penalizing schools next year if they have scores below the confidence boundary
(which will get smaller each year). After next year, each sport that is below
the confidence boundary will not be able to replace the scholarships of students
who leave the programs while they are academically ineligible.
"We do not see a problem for any of our sports," Stiles said.
A news release from OU states that the university is working with head football
coach Frank Solich to assure that his program makes appropriate progress toward
maintaining good standing under the new NCAA program.
OU officials were not given information on how other schools in the Mid-American
Conference (MAC) performed, and they did not have information on how OU ranked
with universities that have been identified as peer institutions.
USA Today reported Tuesday, however, that OU was one of only three schools in
the MAC that met the NCAA's minimum standards. The MAC has 13 schools, and the
other two schools that passed the grade are Ball State University and Miami
University, according to USA Today. The newspaper also reported that several MAC
and Ohio schools were well below the standards in football, including the
University of Toledo (850), University at Buffalo (854), Ohio State (870),
University of Cincinnati (877), Central Florida University (880), Western
Michigan University (896), Eastern Michigan University (897) and Marshall
University (902).
THE FIGURES FOR OU show that most sports were well above the 925 mark and above
the scores for most universities.
For example, the baseball program had a score of 950 and ranked in the 60-70
percentile of scores in the country. The men's basketball program had a mark of
941 and ranked in the 50-60 percentile, while the women's basketball program had
a mark of 947 and ranked in the 30-40 percentile.
While the football program was below the 925 standard with a score of 919, it
was still in the 40-50 percentile of football programs in the country.
The volleyball team had a perfect score of 1,000, but according to the NCAA
figures, somehow was only in the 80-90 percentile of scores. Stiles explained
that while the score looks perfect, factors in the process put OU below some of
the other schools in the ranking. Among the other high scores at OU were women's
golf (1,000), lacrosse (973), soccer (988), softball (987) and women's swimming
(985).
Programs that the statistics show room for improvement include field hockey,
which had a score of 936 and was only in the 1-10 percentile, and men's track,
which had a score of 934 and was in the 30-40 percentile.
Dropped Teams' Latest
Competitive Results
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DROPPED
TEAMS
2006
Women's Lacrosse Team
Swimming
and Diving
and
Track
and Field
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