Men's hoops among 11 Arizona sports to record perfect academic progress scores in 2024-25

UA men's basketball and women's cross-country both also recorded perfect APR multiyear scores, a rolling average over the past four years that the NCAA uses for awards and penalties. The men's basketball program's multiyear score rose from 994 last year to 1,000 this year because a 979 score in 2020-21 dropped off the rolling four-year average.

UA men's basketball coach Tommy Lloyd, who took over the Wildcats in 2020-21, earned a $100,000 bonus for the perfect multiyear APR score. He earned $75,000 last spring for recording a score over 971.

Among men's basketball teams in the Big 12, only the normally stable programs at Houston and Colorado also recorded 1,000 multiyear scores. 

In football, UA recorded a 2024-25 score of 979 and a multiyear score of 976, which increased seven points because a 951 score in 2020-21 dropped off. Its multiyear score tied for 11th among Big 12 football programs, while Iowa State, Texas Tech and Cincinnati tied for first place with 992 scores.

The UA women's basketball team posted a 979 score in 2024-25 and a 984 multiyear score that tied for 10th in the Big 12. Its multiyear score declined from 989 last year because a perfect 1,000 score in 2020-21 dropped off; all years recorded were under former coach Adia Barnes.

Other Arizona programs recording a 1,000 score for 2024-25 included men's tennis and nine women's sports: Cross country, golf, gymnastics, softball, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and volleyball. 

The NCAA said the national multiyear average for Division I programs rose two points to 986 through 2024-25.

All UA sports recorded multi-year rates comfortably above 930, the minimum score needed to avoid penalties and to be eligible for postseason competition.

Unlike graduation rates, the NCAA’s APR ratings are relatively real-time measurements of retention and academic eligibility within a program, though there are multiple ways programs can avoid being penalized for transfers, which are an increasing factor every year in college sports' NIL era.

Each player typically represents four opportunities per year, one in retention and one in eligibility for each semester, and the percentage of successes is multiplied by 1,000 to generate the score.

For example, basketball teams with 12 or 13 scholarship players would score about 980 with one “miss” of either academic ineligibility or retention during a two-semester academic year.

However, there is no penalty for players who leave early and sign pro contracts but do so while academically eligible, nor are there penalties for players who transfer but record a grade-point average of roughly 2.0 or better.

Transfers used to need a 2.6 GPA to avoid costing their former programs any APR points, but the NCAA moved to a less-firm requirement in 2021-22, allowing transfers to earn APR points for their former programs as long as they are “meeting Division I progress-toward-degree requirements when they change schools.”