2015 Texas Longhorns Athletics APR Results: Football Still An Outlier

As we do each year, we heap laurels and and a few raspberries on our various athletic teams and their academic support groups for their performance in APR - a crude measure of academic compliance.  APR is not a measure of intellect, academic rigor or much else.  Basically, it's a measure of your program's ability to have their shit together and meet some very modest standards demonstrating progress to a degree.  Whatever the degree in your field at your school happens to be worth.

Here are the latest results:

This APR is based on data submitted by the institution for the 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.

The University of Texas Academic Progress Rate

Men's Programs: Multi-year APR

Baseball: 995

Basketball: 1,000

Cross Country: 959

Football: 958

Golf: 987

Swimming and Diving: 984

Tennis: 1,000

Track, Indoor: 985

Track, Outdoor: 987

Women's Programs: Multi-year APR

Basketball: 996

Cross Country: 1,000

Golf: 992

Rowing: 995

Soccer: 991

Softball: 996

Swimming and Diving: 1,000

Tennis: 983

Track, Indoor: 986

Track, Outdoor: 986

Volleyball: 1,000

**

Can you spot the historical outlier after everyone decided to get their houses in order in 2007?

The 2015 results are impressive across the board, but pretty much the same relative results we see every year. Football is dead last (but ticking up from truly moribund APR scores - we were six points away from actually losing bowl eligibility) and men's basketball, baseball and outdoor track killed it relative to their athletic demographics along with some other predictably strong performers. Take a bow again, Randa Ryan.

Our cross country scores prove that people who willingly run more than five miles at a time are rendered functionally stupid by their vegan diets, lack of mirror time at Gold's gym and tight IT bands.

The Longhorn ladies killed it across the board.  Pretty impressive stuff.

Anyone else curious to see what Charlie Strong's APRs look like?  I think he'll take more academic risks, but the structures, support and emphasis are clearly much better.  Hopefully, cycling over the roster won't count too much against him.

Lastly, props to the departed Rick Barnes and the some day departing Augie Garrido.  Their academic ship was in complete disarray and they acted decisively to set it right in sports where early entry to the pros and transfers are constant and academic focus isn't always primary.  They admitted their problem, empowered Randa Ryan and made it clear to their athletes that their obligations didn't end on the field of play.

Nice to know that Shaka's hire won't mean a step back.

Thoughts?