NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The penalty banning Tennessee State University’s football program from the postseason has been reserved after a recalculation of the Academic Progress Rate.
Officials with TSU said Thursday they were now eligible for postseason play after a recalculation of the football program’s multi-year (APR).
In May, the NCAA released APR results and Tennessee State's football program received a four-year average score of 915. As a school fitting the NCAA's definition of a limited-resource institution, Tennessee State needed 920 to be eligible for the 2015 postseason.
APR scores are calculated for each team at each school. An athlete receives one point each semester for being academically eligible and another point each semester for staying in school. A perfect score is 1,000.
“Although many perceive the APR as purely academic, it is actually more complex than that with retention being an equal part of the calculation,” Director of Athletics Teresa Phillips said.
With Thursday’s news, the Tennessee State athletic program said it continues its stretch of exceeding the NCAA’s APR threshold.
The school said it has never been issued a postseason ban or penalty of any level.
(Copyright 2015 by NewsChannel 5 and The Associated Press.)
