Amidst scandals and violations throughout college sports, Alabama and Louisville, two National Champion sports programs, have been recognized by the NCAA for academic achievement, reported the Associated Press.
The Alabama Crimson Tide have won three football National Championships in the last four years, while the Louisville Cardinals are coming off a basketball NCAA tournament win. The two champs and 974 other teams made the NCAA's honor roll covering the four-year period ending with the 2011-2012 season.
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is way for the NCAA to measure and track division I student-athletes' chances of graduation. The APR was introduced in 2004 in response to the "Student Right-to-Know Act," which made it mandatory for school's to publish graduation rates. After student athletes' rates did not improve, the APR was introduced to hold schools accountable and recognize successful programs.
An APR score of 925 is equal to a 50 percent graduation rate, which the NCAA can punish a sports program for. Teams with scores below 900 first receive a warning then if the scores do not improve, teams could lose practice time, bowl games and scholarships.
A perfect score is 1,000. Louisville was one of 35 men's basketball teams to score between 975 and 1,000 this year. Alabama and Louisville were also two of ten National Champions honored with high scores.
The scores have not been released and are expected to be made public Tuesday.
Louisville's past three scores have been 965, while Alabama has seen a steady rise to academic prominence. In 2004, the first year of APR scoring, their score was 916 and every year since, they raised it to 942, 944, 955 and 957 last year. The Crimson Tide now join academic powerhouse teams like Duke, Northwestern and Stanford.
"I think it's fantastic," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. "We pride ourselves on having a great program where we do a good job of personal development with our players. The thing that's most important about what our players do while they're at the University of Alabama is graduate from school and develop a career off the field."
The Butler Bulldogs, two-time National Championship runner-up, made the list again after three previous perfect scores.
"The NCAA's quintessential student-athlete exhibits dedication and commitment both on the playing field and in the classroom," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. "These teams and programs truly embody the overall values of the NCAA, and have exceeded standards to post fantastic academic scores."
