Academic Progress Rate: Syracuse Continues Improvement in Latest Four-Year Report

The NCAA released its Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for the 2014-15 season on Wednesday, and the Syracuse sports teams are looking pretty good.

You, like many people, may feel that the APR is a ridiculous program in a sea of ridiculous policies implemented by the NCAA. Regardless of your feelings on APR, the fact is that it is a metric used by the NCAA, and it does matter for the continued postseason participation of Syracuse's sports teams. Here's a quick refresher on how APR works:

In order to maintain next year's postseason eligibility (2016-17), a team must maintain an APR score above 930 for a four-year period, or above 940 for a two-year period. The good news for Syracuse is that every one of their teams had a score in this year's report of at least 960.

Let's take a look at how each Syracuse team performed in this year's four-year APR scores, going in descending order (with ACC ranking in parentheses):

Women's Soccer: 1,000 -- a perfect score (1/14)

Women's Cross Country: 997 (6/15)

Women's Basketball: 996 (2/15)

Men's Cross Country: 996 (5/14)

Women's Volleyball: 994 (9/15)

Women's Lacrosse: 993 (7/8)

Men's Track and Field: 993 (5/15)

Women's Rowing: 992 (3/9)

Women's Track and Field: 989 (9/15)

Women's Softball: 987 (8/11)

Women's Tennis: 983 (13/15)

Women's Ice Hockey: 983 (4/5) *CHA

Men's Lacrosse: 981 (4/5)

Men's Basketball: 980 (8/15)

Football: 973 (7/15)

Men's Soccer: 963 (10/12)

Field Hockey: 960 (7/7)

***

Everyone's clear of the cut line here, so that's a plus. And numbers have also been increasing for many of these programs year-over-year. Women's soccer's perfect score (quite an accomplishment) comes off of a very high 997 for the previous four-year period. The sports most under the microscope, football and men's basketball, continued to increase theirs after several years sitting at/near the bottom of the conference.

Way to go, Syracuse sports. Hopefully we see many of you in an upcoming postseason... since you're eligible and all.