USC Athletics sets new all-time high in NCAA’s APR score

The USC Trojans were at it again this past academic year, once again setting a new program-high for Academic Progress Rate score, this time at 985.

Considering the highest a program can get is 1,000, that’s a pretty high mark, and a mark that may be tough to top for an eighth straight year in 2021.

The APR was established by the NCAA in an attempt to monitor athletic programs, keeping them accountable on the academics side. It’s score is derived by the academic standing of each athlete on scholarship. Each athlete who stays in school and each athlete who remains academically eligible earns one point and a team’s total points are divided by points possible and multiplied by 1,000.

So how’d they get to that 985? Well, really it’s quite simple.

USC had six different teams hit a perfect 1,000-point mark and another four teams to score at least 990. Six more even hit a score above 980. The football program was just three points away from a new team-high and the men’s basketball program’s score was the fourth-best in program history, just six points away from the school best.

The Trojans also had 12 different programs beat their score from a season ago and 14 different programs whose four-year rolling average exceeded or equaled the national average in their sport. There were 11 different one-year totals of 1,000 in the rolling average as well this go around, helping the cause to breaking the previous USC record.

Here are all the scores for the USC Trojans athletic programs for the school year of 2018-19:

Men’s Golf: 1,000
Men’s Track & Field: 1,000
Men’s Volleyball: 1,000
Women’s Cross Country: 1,000
Women’s Golf: 1,000
Women’s Track: 1,000
Men’s Tennis: 994
Women’s Lacrosse: 994
Women’s Beach Volleyball: 993
Women’s Soccer: 991
Women’s Rowing: 988
Baseball: 987
Men’s Water Polo: 981
Women’s Water Polo: 981
Women’s Basketball: 980
Women’s Swimming: 980
Football: 970
Men’s Basketball: 967

The best part about these numbers above: No program was within fewer than 37 points of the barrier of 930, the threshold that the NCAA places for teams to stay above or incur penalties.

And out of all of those programs, six of them received the NCAA Public Recognition Awards for outstanding performance in the classroom: women’s & men’s golf, both women’s and men’s track and field, women’s cross country and men’s volleyball.

Congratulations to all the USC Athletic programs! You’ve made us all proud to be apart of the Trojan Family!

Fight On!