INDIANAPOLIS, IN – While enjoying its most competitive year across the board in athletics competition in the department's modern era, the Bradley University Department of Athletics has received a school-record nine NCAA APR Public Recognition Awards and rates among the nation's top five departments in Academic Progress Rate, according to the national office's Academic Performance Program public recognition announcement Wednesday afternoon.
League-wide the MVC had 38 teams that earned recognition (Bradley's nine is the highest). In 2018, the MVC had 33 teams (Bradley was the highest with seven), and in 2017, 29 MVC programs were recognized (Loyola was the highest that year, with eight). Women's golf was best represented as a league sport, with six of the league's 10 programs receviing NCAA Public Recognition Awards. Men's golf (4) and women's tennis (4) were next in terms of total awards received by a league sport.
Baseball: Illinois State
Men's Basketball: Bradley
Men's Cross Country: Bradley, Drake, UNI
Men's Golf: Bradley, Missouri State, UNI, Valparaiso
Men's Soccer: Bradley
Men's Track: Bradley
Softball: Illinois State, Missouri State
Women's Basketball: Bradley, UNI, Valparaiso
Women's Cross Country: Bradley, Loyola, Valparaiso
Women's Golf: Illinois State, Loyola, Southern Illinois, Evanvsille, UNI, Valparaiso
Women's Soccer: Loyola, UNI, Valparaiso
Women's Swimming and Diving: Southern Illinois, UNI
Women's Tennis: Bradley, Missouri State, UNI, Valparaiso
Women's Track: Bradley, Loyola
Volleyball: Illinois State, Missouri State
Of the 13 NCAA Division I sports sponsored by Bradley (indoor and outdoor track are counted together for APR purposes), nine received NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking among the top 10 percent nationally in each sport: Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Men's Golf, Men's Soccer, Women's Tennis, Men's Track, Women's Track. With 69.2 percent of its teams qualifying for NCAA Public Recognition Awards, Bradley is tied for fifth nationally in percentage of teams honored, joining Villanova (77%), Columbia (75%), Holy Cross (75%), Lehigh (70%) and Dartmouth (69%).
Bradley's Men's Basketball, Men's Cross Country and Women's Cross Country teams also won MVC Championships in 2018-19, while Women's Tennis and Men's Indoor Track each enjoyed the best competitive season in each respective sport's history. Bradley Men's Basketball, Soccer and Men's Track were the only Missouri Valley Conference teams in those three sports to receive NCAA Public Recognition Awards Wednesday.
Bradley's nine teams to receive NCAA APR Public Recognition are the most of any school in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference – Northern Iowa and Valparaiso tied for second, each with seven. Bradley also ranked fourth among the 43 NCAA Division I institutions in Illinois and the five neighboring states of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin, trailing only Notre Dame (14), Northwestern (13) and Saint Louis (10). The 69 percent of Bradley teams recognized, however, was tops in the six-state region: Bradley (.692), Northwestern (.684), Notre Dame (.636) and Saint Louis (.625).
Each year, the NCAA honors selected NCAA Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multiyear NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport. This year's release will again include recognition in the sport of football by subdivision (i.e., Football Bowl Subdivision and NCAA Football Championship Subdivision).
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
While Bradley student-athletes continue to excel academically, the Braves also have enjoyed their most successful collective year of competition since Bradley University began intercollegiate athletics sponsorship of women's sports in the late 1970's. In addition to the three Valley titles, Volleyball earned an automatic bid to the National Invitation Volleyball Championship for its first-ever postseason berth; Bradley Soccer enjoyed the second unbeaten (6-0-4) non-conference season in program history; Men's Indoor Track's distance-centric team scored a program-record 86 points at the 2019 MVC Indoor Track Championship; Women's Basketball won 20 games for just the third time in program history; Women's Tennis enjoyed its best overall (16-8) and conference (4-1) season in program history; Baseball is coming off its best calendar month (15-3 in April) in 50 years; and Softball is chasing a top three seed for next week's MVC Softball Championship, which it will host at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.