April 25, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Five Saint Joseph's University athletic teams - women's basketball, soccer, softball, women's tennis and men's soccer - have earned a Public Recognition Award from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for earning high scores in the latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) compilation.

The NCAA honored 712 Division I sports teams with public recognition awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores.

These teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The teams recognized this year represent 11.4 percent of the 6,272 Division I teams. The list includes 401 women's teams and 311 men's or mixed squads. A total of 192 Division I institutions had at least one team on the top APR list. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000 over the data collection period.

Multi-year APR scores for all 6,272 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historically based penalties for low-performing teams.