Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy is shouldering the blame for his team's low academic progress rate (APR) scores, resulting in their loss of practice time.

According to ESPN, the Cowboys will lose two practice hours per week, equal to one day of work. The NCAA handed down the penalty as it released its APR data. The Cowboys football team failed to reach an APR score of 930 by a mere 0.09 points.

"I've accepted it," Gundy told ESPN Friday. "I'm in charge. It's not the AD's fault. It's not the president's fault. It's not anyone's fault but mine. I'll deal with it. It's not going to affect our team. It's not going to affect our players. Is it a disadvantage? Sure it is. But we'll be OK."

Now, the team can only practice 18 hours a week, instead of 20, which would only be a loss of one hour per week. Gundy said he and his staff had decided to reduce weekly practice hours to 19 this season.

The Cowboys were supposed to lose four hours per week, but the team appealed the NCAA punishment. The NCAA reduced the loss to two hours per week because of how narrowly the team missed the APR mark.

"I appreciate the reduction," Gundy said, noting 16 practice hours per week "would have been tougher."

An unnamed school official told ESPN the team is going to push the NCAA further and try to get the penalty lifted altogether. In the meantime, the team plans to move forward.

"We are taking steps to ensure that our APR numbers improve moving forward," athletic director Mike Holder said a statement Wednesday. "We are accountable for what we do and, ultimately, we are here to serve our student-athletes and do our best to keep them on track to be lifelong contributors to society."

Gundy is among a pocket of athletic department personnel who do not agree with how the NCAA handles its APR scores and the resulting penalties for not meeting the standards.

"Some older players were being beaten out [for positions] by better recruits, and they wanted to go play somewhere else," Gundy said.

He told ESPN his team has been penalized two points for a player who transferred to Oklahoma State, but left a day later. He said the team was deducted another point for a player who left the team to be closer to home, but the player came back and is now working as an offensive assistant for the team. Gundy also said Oklahoma State does not drop the scholarships of players who leave school early for the NFL Draft, a common practice that can lessen a potential APR deduction.

"We haven't done that because we want to honor what we told them we would give them," Gundy told ESPN. "We are being hurt for trying to encourage them to graduate? ... I don't think the system is set up for what they want to accomplish."