According to the school’s web site, the NCAA announced the school’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) has been amended to a 930 and the school no longer faces APR restrictions for the 2014-15 academic school year.
When the NCAA released its APR data on May 14, OSU football had an average score of 929.41 over the past four years and an average score of 943.54 over the past two years. The APR is a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete, each term.
But the 929.41 was amended to a 930 — above the restriction threshold — after athletic department officials discovered the recent graduation of an athlete from the 1990s.
“We are very thankful for the cooperation of the NCAA staff during this process and we appreciate their focus on the accuracy of the data. We are also thankful that we received a speedy resolution,” Athletic Director Mike Holder said in the press release.
That’s much-needed welcome news for a program that remains under scrutiny. The football program is under NCAA investigation stemming from a five-part series by Sports Illustrated last September, which alleged several violations by the program.
URBAN RECRUITS LEBRON
With the College Football Playoff being a part of the game this season, coaches have to take advantage of every little thing that can give them a leg up on their competition.
Good thing for Urban Meyer that he has LeBron James’ phone number.
James, who is returning to Cleveland to play for the Cavaliers, has a sideline pass waiting for him at all Ohio State home games.
Meyer said as much at Big Ten Media Days. Meyer said that he texted James, telling him to be at every game, according to Kyle Rowland, who covers the Buckeyes for Eleven Warriors.
Meyer added that having James around would be good for recruiting.
Yes, coach, yes it would.
NCAA SETTLES SUIT
The NCAA agreed Tuesday to settle a class-action head injury lawsuit by creating a $70 million fund to diagnose thousands of current and former college athletes to determine if they suffered brain trauma playing football, hockey, soccer and other contact sports.
College sports’ governing body also agreed to implement a single return-to-play policy spelling out how all teams must treat players who received head blows, according to a Tuesday filing in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Critics have accused the NCAA of giving too much discretion to hundreds of individual schools about when athletes can go back into games, putting them at risk.
Unlike a proposed settlement in a similar lawsuit against the NFL, this deal stops short of setting aside money to pay players who suffered brain trauma. Instead, athletes can sue individually for damages and the NCAA-funded tests to gauge the extent of neurological injuries could establish grounds for doing that.
The filing serves as notice to the federal judge overseeing the class-action case that the parties struck a deal after nearly a year of negotiations. In addition to football, ice hockey and soccer, the settlement also applies to all men and women who participated in basketball, wrestling, field hockey and lacrosse.
Joseph Siprut, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney who spearheaded talks with the NCAA, said the sometimes-tough negotiations ended with a deal that will make college athletics safer.
“I wouldn’t say these changes solve the safety problems, but they do reduce the risks,” the Chicago attorney said Tuesday. “It’s changed college sports forever.”
He also said that stricter oversight and return-to-play rules should help ensure the viability of football by allaying the fears of parents who are currently inclined to not let their kids play.
“Changes were necessary to preserve the talent well of kids that feeds the game of football,” he said. “Absent these kinds of changes, the sport will die.”
Phone and email messages seeking comment from the NCAA, based in Indianapolis, were not immediately returned Tuesday morning.
There is no cutoff date for when athletes must have played a designated sport at one of the more than 1,000 NCAA member schools to qualify for the medical exams. That means all athletes currently playing and those who participated decades ago could undergo the tests and potentially follow up with damage claims.
To keep the NCAA from having to hold unwieldy talks with multiple plaintiffs, 10 lawsuits filed from Georgia and South Carolina to Minnesota and Missouri were consolidated into the one case in Chicago, where the first lawsuit was filed in 2011. Combined, the suits identified several dozen athletes by name as having suffered brain trauma.
The lead plaintiff is Adrian Arrington, a former safety at Eastern Illinois. He said he endured five concussions while playing, some so severe he has said he couldn’t recognize his parents afterward. Subsequent headaches, memory loss, seizures and depression made it difficult to work or even care for his children, filings said.
Another named plaintiff is former Central Arkansas wide receiver Derek K. Owens. After several concussions, he said he found he could no longer retain what he had just studied. His symptoms became so severe he dropped out of school in 2011, telling his mother: “I feel like a 22-year-old with Alzheimer’s.”
Among other settlement terms, all athletes will take baseline neurological tests to start each year to help doctors determine the severity of any concussion during the season; concussion education will be mandated for coaches and athletes; and a new, independent Medical Science Committee will oversee the medical testing.
The NCAA admits no wrongdoing in the settlement and has denied understating the dangers of concussions. As proof it has tried to mitigate the risks, it has cited recent changes in equipment, medical practices and playing rules, including ones prohibiting football players from targeting an opponent’s head or neck.
AAC PRESEASON POLL
Cincinnati has been picked to win the American Athletic Conference, with defending champion Central Florida second.
The Bearcats went 9-4 last season under coach Tommy Tuberville and returns 16 starters. They received 17 of 30 first-place votes from the media panel and 311 points.
UCF, which went 12-1 and beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl last season, received seven first-place votes and 296 points. The Knights return 17 starters but must replace quarterback Blake Bortles.
Houston was picked third with six first-place votes, followed by conference newcomer East Carolina. SMU was picked fifth, South Florida sixth and Memphis seventh.
Temple came in eighth. UConn was tied for ninth with Tulane, also in its first season in the American. Tulsa was picked last in its first season in the conference.
Contributors: Bill Bender, Ken Bradley, The Associated Press
