OSU One of Two Schools with Perfect APR in Football and Men’s Basketball

Mike Gundy has always been very clear about his feelings (and focus) on the academic side of college sports, especially when it comes to graduation rates and the long-term success of his players both in and out of football. Sure, it may be window dressing but it’s hard to argue with the the results.

On Wednesday, the NCAA released the APR numbers (academic progress rate as defined here) for all sports for the 2016-17 year and Oklahoma State was the only Power 5 school to see both its men’s basketball and football programs post a perfect 1,000. Nevada is the only other school with a perfect rating in both football and men’s basketball. Men’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s golf and softball brought OSU up to six sports with a perfect rating.

Here’s a look at the scores for all 15 sports.

OSU’s men’s golf program posted a 1,000 multi-year rate (a combined score of the last four academic years) which is all the more impressive given its recent success. And according to Mark Cooper of the Tulsa World, Oklahoma State’s current multi-year football APR of 969 is the school’s highest ever.

“Getting a perfect score in the APR means a lot to our program because there is so much hard work that goes into it,” said Mike Gundy. “It’s a great accomplishment to score 1,000 on the APR with essentially the same group of players that won 10 games for three straight years.

“Seeing our players succeed both on the field and in the classroom at this kind of level serves to validate the strength of the Cowboy Culture we have in place. We’re so grateful for the team over in academics for the time and effort they put into helping our players have success.”

Mike Holder was predictably pleased with his school’s strong showing.

“There is a lot to celebrate in this report and it’s a credit to our coaches, to Marilyn Middlebrook and her staff in the Academic Enrichment Center and to the student-athletes themselves that so many of our programs are achieving at a high level,” said Holder. “Kudos to Alan Bratton and the golf program for maintaining a perfect multi-year score and to Mike Gundy, Mike Boynton, Jay Udwadia, Courtney Jones and Kenny Gajewski for leading their respective programs to perfect scores this past academic year.”

Nine of OSU’s 15 sports showed a positive trend by either matching or surpassing their multi-year rate from 2016-17, and the biggest jump of all came from football, which jumped 16 points from 953 to 969. The men’s basketball program jumped from 955 a year ago to a current total of 965.