Penn State to Appeal Academic Progress Rate With NCAA, Trustee Says

Trustee Brandon Short says a story regarding the football team's APR was 'promoted' to 'intentionally undermine' the program.

Penn State will appeal its most recent NCAA Academic Progress Rate for football, a university trustee said, citing lost points in the metric that would have improved the score. Further, trustee Brandon Short said that, while football coach James Franklin and athletic director Patrick Kraft "are being held accountable" for the team's recent APR drop, a story concerning those academic results lacked context and was timed to "intentionally undermine" the football team ahead of a highly anticipated 2023 season.

"You may not be aware, but there are a small group of people at Penn State who are actively working to undermine our football program," Short said in a statement to AllPennState (first reported by Blue-White Illustrated). "The information in this news story has been available to the public for close to a year. However, the story was published one week before the start of a new season. It’s sad to say, but if feels like this story was promoted then written at this time to intentionally undermine football ahead of a season when there is so much excitement around the program."

Spotlight PA, an independent news site that covers Pennsylvania, published a story Aug. 24 about Penn State's most recent football and basketball academic progress rates. According to the story, Penn State football in 2021-22 recorded a single-year APR rate of 914, its lowest in more than a decade and the lowest among Big Ten football programs. The NCAA, which makes APR data public, uses the scores to determine academic progress of athletic teams. Teams that fall below a certain metric could face penalties, including postseason ineligibility.

On Tuesday, five days before the Nittany Lions' season-opener against West Virginia, Penn State coach James Franklin said the athletic department is "going to spend a lot of energy and resources on getting it back to where we want it to be." Franklin also cited the football program's 89-percent graduation success rate, another metric the NCAA uses to measure academic progress. That was 2 percentage points higher than the football program's previous GSR and seven points higher than the average of teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Short said that the story lacked context regarding several factors, including players who already had graduated, players who transferred and one player who was ineligible due to a medical issue. Penn State's APR fell 13 points because of those metrics, Short said. The NCAA permits programs to appeal lost points, something Penn State will pursue, Short said.

Earlier this year, Short spoke publicly about what he called a small group of alumni-elected trustees engaged in a campaign to undermine the athletic department. Short, a former Penn State All-American linebacker and alumni-elected trustee, said that some trustees were "disparaging our administrators and questioning the character of our coaches and even our student-athletes."

"It's a level of disrespect that has to be addressed in order for us to be successful," Short said in an April interview. "I’m a firm believer in Penn State. I’m a believer that we can do anything when we’re all rowing in one direction. My goal is to unite Penn State, but we can’t be united with people who treat our coaches and administrators with such contempt."

Here is Short's full statement:

Penn State Trustee Brandon Short's Statement Regarding APR

I’m a proud product of Joe Paterno’s Grand Experiment. I truly value my Penn State education and believe that our football program is continuing to prioritize academic performance. The NCAA looks at two measures of academic accountability: 1) Graduation Rates 2) Academic Progress.

PSU football's current graduation rate is 89%, which is seven points higher than the Division I football average and is a two-point increase from 2021. The football program's 89% graduation rate is in line with our historic graduation rate under the late, great Joe Paterno. While academic progress is important, the most important factor in changing our student-athletes' lives is graduating from Penn State.

The news story focused on academic progress to create a negative narrative for the story. The NCAA is currently reviewing whether to continue utilizing the academic progress metric in the future, as there are many factors that can bring down a program's score that do not relate to academic performance. For example, Penn State lost 13 points on this year's academic progress due to:

• Players who already earned their undergraduate degrees were using an additional year of eligibility available to them due to COVID and all went on to pursue NFL careers.
• Players who transferred out of the program following the season and are not known to continue their education elsewhere.
• A player who had a medical condition and did not meet eligibility requirements after learning of this condition.

If these points had been included, Penn State’s score would have been in line with our historical average. The NCAA allows programs to appeal lost points given that there are many factors that do not reflect academic performance. And Penn State is currently appealing these lost points through the NCAA.

James Franklin and Pat Kraft are continuing to prioritize academics and they are being held accountable. You may not be aware, but there are a small group of people at Penn State who are actively working to undermine our football program. The information in this news story has been available to the public for close to a year. However, the story was published one week before the start of a new season. It’s sad to say, but if feels like this story was promoted then written at this time to intentionally undermine football ahead of a season when there is so much excitement around the program.

Academic progress is and always will be a priority at Penn State.

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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich. And consider subscribing (button's on the home page) for more great content across the SI.com network.