Don't go overboard on APR talk

Schools are sending out all sorts of press releases on their APR stats. I am sure a BC one will arrive soon. Usually BC is among the highest scorers in the rating that captures academic progress and graduation. The APR can also punish poor performing schools. Yet miraculously it is the little guys who always get penalized and the Power 5 programs all somehow skate along boasting of their success in supporting student athletes. Critics say the rating and system is fixed and borderline fraudulent. Considering Kentucky Basketball is now touting their perfect APR score, I think it is time to downplay our APR success.

I am not trying to pick on Kentucky. In fact, I admire Calipari's transparency. He's not bothering with the sham "student athletes." He's recruiting a bunch of "one and done"s and trying to win as many basketball games as he can. I doubt he is spending much time worrying about his APR. I assume there is a whole army of staffers and administrators in Lexington holding these players' hands for their one year, and the same support team is filing every exemption needed with regards to transfers and guys who leave for the Draft to not hurt Kentucky Basketball's APR.

I do think BC has genuine concern for our student's progress. As long as we are part of Big Time sports, I think we should keep that focus. It is a nice differentiator. However, let's use our own stats about graduating players and helping them succeed off the field. Because bragging about our APR is pointless.

ESPN/ABC pretends they are not putting BC-ND in primetime and other links

ESPN reserved the right to flex the ACC schedule in a six day window. That means that they won't announce the start times or networks for the November 10th games until this Sunday. BC and Notre Dame will either be a noon game or an 8 PM game. People are speculating that this is a hedge just in case Pitt beats Notre Dame this weekend and knocks Notre Dame out of the Top 10. I predict it will be a evening game regardless of what happens this weekend. Notre Dame has been a very good TV draw this year. Their  games against Oklahoma and Stanford were the highest rated college games of their respective weekends. Even with a loss, there is viewer momentum built into them and Teo's Heisman push. This will be a night game.

Florida DT Kevin Maurice enjoyed his visit this weekend but did not commit.

SI posted their ACC basketball preview. Like me, they don't think we will be the worst team in the conference.

Hockey beat UMass-Lowell on Sunday.

BC moved up in the ACC's Power Rankings.

We know about BC's graduation rate, but I thought Biko Paris's quotes in this article were enlightening and help explain how BC does it.

Everybody loves Ice Jam and other links

Give credit where it is due, BC has turned "Ice Jam" into something. The second annual event went off without a hitch and all the reviews were positive. WZBC took advantage of the event and interviewed plenty of players. Remember to give them a listen now and then during games.

BC continues to graduate a high percentage of our athletes. We tied Duke and only trailed Notre Dame in graduation rate succes.

Mark Herzlich will be on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

Taking a look at BC's APR rating

The NCAA released its latest APR report Tuesday. As a refresher, the APR stands for Academic Progress Report. Myles Brand created the measurement to track the academic success of student athletes. Programs that fail to meet national standards are subject to scholarship penalties and other restrictions.

You can read BC's report here.

What does it mean for BC? For the most part the news in excellent. The danger score is 925 and all of the BC teams are well above that number. The only team flirting with 925 is men's basketball and they are above the national average for hoops. The APR is calculated using a four year window, so our basketball number should creep up once the players who were kicked out mid semester cycle out of our average.

Hats of to the Athletic Department for keeping our athletes in school and on the path to graduation.