Liberty University during the last 12 months organized a committee of faculty, staff and coaches to address academic performance of Flames student-athletes.
The school was being proactive. The NCAA announced yesterday that Liberty would forfeit two men’s basketball scholarships for that team’s failure to reach the Academic Progress Rate baseline. The APR measured eligibility, retention and graduation of scholarship players on the 6,272 Division I teams through four years.
“Unfortunately, from the years of 2003-04 through 2006-07, we had a substantial number of men’s basketball players leave our program,” Jeff Barber, LU’s athletic director since January 2006, said in a school statement. “In addition, nearly all left Liberty academically ineligible according to NCAA standards.
“The combination of these two factors resulted in our low APR score for the program.”