NCAA Release
 
INDIANAPOLIS - Five Missouri State athletic teams have received special public recognition from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for excellence in its multi-year Academic Progress Report (APR), the NCAA announced Wednesday (May 1).
 
MSU's men's golf, men's swimming and diving, softball, women's tennis and volleyball programs have all reached APR public recognition status by accumulating multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all teams at the Division I level.

All five programs have now received NCAA public recognition awards three straight years. Prior to that, Missouri State had received public recognition awards from the NCAA just four times: men's soccer in 2014-15, volleyball in 2005-06 and 2008-09, and men's tennis in 2004-05.
  
Each year, the NCAA honors selected NCAA Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year NCAA Division I APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes.
 
"To have five programs recognized three years in a row is absolutely remarkable," said MSU Director of Athletics Kyle Moats. "Academic success is a cornerstone of what Missouri State University is all about, and certainly one of the pillars of Bears athletics."  

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
 
A total of 1,328 Division I teams -- up by 44 from the previous academic year – earned public recognition awards. Of the teams recognized, 471 competed in men's or mixed sports, and 857 competed in women's sports. APRs for programs in the top 10 percent ranged from 987 to a perfect 1,000, and the number of teams posting perfect scores increased to 1,214, marking an increase of 26 teams from last year.
 
The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2014-15 through 2017-18 academic years. All Division I teams' APR scores are set to be announced by the NCAA on May 8.