May 23, 2018

INDIANAPOLIS--After leading all Division I schools with the highest percentage of its sport programs earning public recognition awards from the NCAA for their multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, Villanova continued to shine in the full release of APR data revealed by the national office on Wednesday afternoon. Last week's announcement of public recognition awards was complemented by a second installment this week in which complete APR scores for all Division I schools and sports was released. Each of the Wildcats 22 sport programs posted multi-year APR scores that ranked well above the national average for their sport.

This is the 13th year that APR data has been collected for Division I schools. The metric provides a real-time measure of a sport program's academic performance based on points earned each semester by student-athletes for their academic standing and retention. A mark of 1000 represents a perfect score. Public recognition awards are given annually to the teams whose multi-year APR scores rank in the top 10 percent of their sport nationwide. Villanova set a program record with 18 teams earning public recognition awards this year and had the highest percentage of teams recognized (82 percent) of any Division I school.

Of particular note for the Wildcats are the 16 teams that have a currently multi-year score of 1000. Those teams are men's basketball, women's basketball, men's cross country, women's cross country, field hockey, golf, women's lacrosse, rowing, women's soccer, men's swimming & diving, women's swimming & diving, men's tennis, women's tennis, women's track & field, volleyball and water polo. Villanova was also tops among all Division I schools with 73 percent of its teams having a perfect 1000 score.

This year's list of teams earning public recognition awards gives Villanova a total of 130 such awards since the inception of the APR program. Each of the Wildcats sport programs has earned a public recognition award at least once, led by the women's track & field program with 10 awards followed by the golf and men's tennis teams with nine awards each.

Wednesday's release of APR data is yet another indicator of across-the-board student-athlete success at Villanova. The spring academic semester which just concluded was the 30th consecutive semester in which Wildcats student-athletes maintained a collective grade-point average above a 3.0, and the seventh straight semester in which the GPA for student-athletes was higher than a 3.2.

Villanova is setting new standards for academic success at a time when its success in athletic competition is also at a high points. The men's basketball team won its second national title in the past three seasons last month, and the Wildcats were the only Division I school to have both its men's and women's basketball teams achieve a perfect 1000 APR score while playing in this year's NCAA Tournament.

Among the Villanova teams with a 1000 score, the women's cross country squad qualified for the NCAA Championships and the men's team sent two individuals to the national meet. The women's swimming & diving team won its fifth straight BIG EAST crown. Women's track & field swept the indoor and outdoor BIG EAST titles. Villanova ranks No. 51 in the current standings for the 2017-18 Learfield Directors' Cup.