How The New APR Rule Could Affect College Basketball

In case you hadn't heard, the NCAA has enacted a new rule that says schools must have an APR of 930, or they are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. From ESPN:

The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors on Thursday unanimously approved the idea that college sports teams not carrying at least a 930 Academic Progress Rate averaged over four years will soon be barred from postseason competition. That means a raising of the bar of academic requirements teams will need to meet in order to go dancing in the NCAA tournament or any other sport's NCAA-sanctioned postseason.

So Rush The Court took a look at how the NCAA Tournament would have looked if this rule had been in place this season. Needless to say, it is interesting.

Alabama State was given a 16-seed and a ticket to Dayton for the First Four after winning the SWAC Tournament. Their APR of 907 would have DQ’d them from the NCAA, so the spot would go to Texas Southern. Actually, it wouldn’t, because of their 890 APR. So, if we keep going down the SWAC standings until we find an APR-acceptable school, we land at 9th-place Alcorn State (4-24, 4-14) and its 944 rating — the only SWAC school above the NCAA’s APR demarcator. Congrats, Braves. You and your four wins would have been dancing last season.

Bravo to the NCAA for requiring colleges to be a bit more diligent in making sure that players are students first, athletes second. Let's hope it causes teams to get their act together.

More Unscrupulousness In College Basketball

By now you have heard of the Yahoo! Sports article on the athletic programs at the University of Miami, including allegations made about then Miami (now Missouri) coach Frank Haith.

BIAH has tracked how this could affect college hoops. To quote CBS Sports' Matt Norlander:

It could absolutely get him fired from Missouri, should more information get uncovered.

This is the type of stuff that you rarely see in mid-major college basketball, which is why a lot of people (myself included) love it so much.

No one will come out of this scandal looking good.

Luke Winn on Recruits and Transfers

This has been traveling around the college basketball blogging world, but Luke Winn had a great, great article studying recruiting and transfers among the top 100 recruits over the past 5 years.

To summarize:

It's irresistible to focus on the high-profile and the extreme, because they make great column fodder, but that doesn't give us a real grasp on the issue. What is normal behavior for modern, top-100 recruits? How often are they switching high schools, how frequently are they decommitting from colleges, at what rate are they transferring, and why? If we're going to call something an epidemic, we need comprehensive evidence. The Commitment Project is SI.com's search for answers.

Winn is one of the best in the business, and this article is more than worthy of your attention.