THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University softball and women's tennis teams were honored with the National Collegiate Athletic Association's prestigious Public Recognition Award, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
The honor is presented to programs that score within the top 10 percent of their respective sports in the Academic Progress Rate (APR) data released in May 2019. Colonel Softball and Women's Tennis were among more than 1,300 programs from 321 schools that were recognized by the NCAA.
"The retention and graduation of our student-athletes are of supreme importance," Director of Athletics
Matt Roan said. "Specifically, we are so proud of our softball and women's tennis student-athletes and coaches, and are so thankful for the support from a first-class faculty and staff on campus for making these recognitions possible."
The APR measures eligibility, graduation, and retention each semester or academic term and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in every sport. All teams must meet an academic threshold of 930 to qualify for the postseason and can face penalties for continued low academic performance.
The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years.
The complete list of NCAA Public Recognition Award recipients can be found
here.
