How Close is TCU Football to Facing APR Penalties?

Academics. It's something Frog fans pride themselves on. TCU is an incredibly good school. But it seems that some of our footballers aren't taking full advantage of the educational opportunity afforded them.

APR stands for Academic Progress Rate, and it's the NCAA's way to monitor academic success school by school and team by team in real time. Every year a school is assigned a number, based on this equation from the NCAA:

Every Division I sports team calculates its APR each academic year. Scholarship student-athletes each semester receive one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Teams scoring below certain thresholds can face consequences, including practice restrictions and playing season reductions. Rates are an average of the past four years' performance. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable data at the time of analysis.

Those thresholds are on the rise, with schools now required to maintain a 930 or better over their four year average, or a 940 average over the past two years.

TCU has been the beneficiaries of some strong APR scores over the past few years, one of which just rolled off their average, a 983 from 2008-2009. They still have a 997 factoring into their average this year, but next year that rolls off too.

The three scores that the Frogs will hold on to? A 959, 909 and this year's 910.

In order to maintain the 930 average required, TCU will need a 941 next year.

Here's where TCU sits currently in the Big 12.

So the Frogs obviously have some work to do off the field. Cases like Brandon Carter certainly don't help.

And yes, if you're looking, TCU's APR has been the lowest in the Big 12 over the past two seasons by a substantial margin.