The NCAA released it’s annual Academic Progress Rate report yesterday, commemorating over 700 teams that say it “student-athlete”, and reprimanding 218 teams who say it “student-athlete“. In the world of college football, 17 Division I-A FBS teams are on the list. Of those, five are Mid-American Conference teams. They are, in an alphabetical order that works for me because it saves the most embarrassing for last, Akron, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Temple and Toledo. (To be fair, BG squeaked right under the limbo bar.)
Toledo got rocked the hardest of the MAC schools, losing 6 scholarships. That ties them for the 4th hardest hit football team in the coutry, matched by San Diego State, and beaten by Idaho (8), Washington State (8), and UAB (9!). Granted… UT didn’t have 79 kids on a scholarship last year, but it’s the thought that counts. The real news is if they don’t get above the fold next year, they could be ineligible for a bowl.
All jokes about Toledo aside (and trust me there are plenty of them), what’s the deal with the MAC? Central Michigan has an excuse: student retention is figured into the number, and with a lot of coach’s coming and going, a lot of players are going. But what about the other schools? Toledo is not a bad school, nor is their athletic office negligent; Rocket Basketball was in the Top 10 percentile of basketball, and a pair of teams had perfect scores. Is this a slight against Tom Amstutz and his staff? Is Toledo football just recruiting less-than students? Has the hours of jamming on Madden finally rotted our brains like our moms warned us it would?
Rockets football players were reached for comment, but they couldn’t figure out which end of the phone to speak into.
