The NCAA is set to suspend the enforcement of its Academic Progress Rate rule, a metric that accumulates the academic progress of athletes over the previous four years. The NCAA penalizes athletic programs with postseason bans, practice times, and loss of scholarships, among other things, for failing to hit a certain APR benchmark.
The NCAA Committee on Academics recommended a two-year suspension of the APR penalties during the pandemic. Schools with more resources, in addition to having access to better tutors and academic support, are also able to more effectively game the system as it only monitors scholarship athletes. HBCUs and other low-resource institutions have had a harder time doing that and a result, are disproportionately penalized.
The temporary suspension could be welcomed news to FAMU Athletics which last year had four programs hit with APR violations. FAMU has had its share of troubles meeting APR benchmarks since the rule went into place in 2003.