After five years of scholarship restrictions and sanctions that left the once successful program crippled, the men’s basketball team is finally off the snide.

For the past five seasons, basketball team has been under sanctions from the NCAA because of poor Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores. The APR scores measure the athletic department’s academic success and percent of student’s graduating.

The scores are broken down into a tangible five-year average and if a particular program has a low graduation rate and scores poorly, the sport will be penalized by the NCAA in scholarship numbers.

The men’s basketball program has been under NCAA sanctions for a string of poor APR scores dating back to former head coach Ray Lopes. The APR scores are measured on a scale to 1000 and in Lopes’ first season with university, his team scored a 611. That score is drastically lower than the 925 mark the NCAA can begin to penalize programs for.

The 611 score, which was Lopes’ first season in 2005, is finally off the five-year APR average for the men’s basketball team. With the 611 off the five-year average for Cleveland’s team, the program scored a 891 in the most recent release of scores.

Even though the 891 score does not meet the NCAA’s standard 925 mark, the progress shown for the past five seasons has kept the Bulldogs from another season of penalty. The men’s basketball team will have the maximum possible number of scholarships in 2009,10 – 13.

Check back next week with The Collegian for more in-depth coverage of the 2009 APR scores.

New APR scores

Men’s sports

• Baseball, 924
• Men’s basketball, 891
• Men’s cross country, 950
• Football, 948
• Men’s golf, 925
• Men’s tennis, 912
• Men’s outdoor track, 926

Women’s sports

• Women’s basketball, 944
• Women’s cross country, 951
• Women’s golf, 986
• Soccer, 977
• Softball, 928
• Women’s tennis, 976
• Women’s indoor track, 937
• Women’s outdoor track, 935
• Volleyball, 962