Teague sees school on track from self-study

Brad Teague, University of Central Arkansas' athletic director, sees no fires flaming out of control from the school's extensive self-study of its athletic program.

Thus, as UCA takes another major step toward full NCAA Division I membership, it's a matter of continued maintenance rather than emergency reaction.

"From the beginning of the process, our staff has learned how to develop strategic plans and preparing reports and dealing with compliance issues, so we're used to handling all this," Teague said. "I think we have a good knowledge of where we are and where we need to be."

The comprehensive self-study, about 100 pages, is a major benchmark during the fifth and final year of transition for a program to NCAA Division I. It's a certification process that will be repeated every 10 years. An NCAA group will visit UCA in October to make sure everything that is contained in the report is true. After the NCAA sub-committee reports its findings to the membership committee, UCA's full Division I status will either be approved, approved with conditions or rejected.

"I'd say we are 95 percent on target," Teague said.

.story-ad {

width: 310px;

float: left;

margin: 0 10px 10px 0;

padding: 4px;

}

- Advertisement -

OAS_AD('x22');

Parts of the report, particularly relating to subpar graduation percentages and retention rates for minority athletes in various sports (especially those that have small rosters), may be somewhat misleading.

"Things get skewered in the transition, particularly in a sport where you have very few minority athletes," Teague said. "If you just have three or four minority athletes on a squad and one drops out or transfers in any year, that's going to really negatively affect the percentage. And if you focus on any one year of the transition, things can get thrown out of focus because, particularly early in the transition process, you're going to lose players or have players transfer for one reason or another."

For example, the men's basketball team will get a boost this season with four players, Landrell Brewer, Brian Marks, Andrew Silverman and King Cannon, on track to graduate within the next year.

The measuring stick in NCAA Division I is APR (Average Percentage Rate), which measures retention and graduation rates over a period and carries sanctions such as loss of scholarships and postseason eligibility if athletic programs or sports fall below a certain standard.

"APR tells the tale," Teague said. "Retention is essential among athletes in every sport, every squad. It is absolutely essential. The penalties are too great."

Teague, who has been an athletic director in both Division I and Division II (Delta State), has seen the difference.

"There is a big difference in academic requirements from Division II to Division I," Teague said. "I like the Division I approach. In Division I, your athletes absolutely have to make progress toward a degree and if they stay at an institution four or five years, they need to graduate. There's a stronger emphasis and guidelines for academic integrity."

Therefore, UCA coaches are not just recruiting (or not recruiting) a player on a dream or a whim and entirely on athletic ability.

That relates to the checks-and-balances in the self-study. Before a coach can offer an athlete a scholarship, the application must be reviewed by a compliance committee. That committee makes a recommendation to Teague based on the committee's review of the high school transcript and analysis on whether the athlete can do collegiate academic work.

"I review every application have to sign off on it before an athlete can be offered a scholarship," Teague said. "It's part of the chain of command the NCAA requires. We can't afford to take risks."

The key word throughout the transition is progress.

"What the NCAA is asking is are you improving?" Teague said. "And we are improving."

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)