INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Stony Brook Athletics had eight of its 16 programs earn a multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) at or above the national average within its respective sport, with seven programs earning perfect single-year scores, as announced by the NCAA in its latest report.

"Our student-athletes are challenged each day to compete in everything that they do, and that definitely applies to their work in the classroom," said Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron. "I'm extremely proud of the support system that we have in place at Stony Brook that allows our student-athletes to be confident learners. This is a total team effort by our student-athletes, academic advisors, coaches and campus partners."

All 16 of Stony Brook's sports programs recorded scores above the NCAA benchmark of 930 required to compete in the postseason. Cumulatively, Stony Brook posted an APR of 979 during the 2023-24 academic year. In terms of multi-year performance, women's basketball, softball, women's cross country, women's soccer, tennis, volleyball, baseball and football all met or exceeded the national average scores for their sports. As for the single-year figures, seven of Stony Brook's 16 teams achieved a perfect APR score of 1,000 in 2023-24: women's basketball, women's cross country, softball, women's soccer, tennis and volleyball.

In addition to this, softball, tennis, and volleyball were all honored with the NCAA Public Recognition Award as each team achieved a perfect multi-year APR score of 1,000 over the latest four-year period (2020-21 through 2023-24) and ranked in the top 10 percent in the nation in their respective sports.

"The continued success by our programs in this area tells an incredible story of the hard work and dedication that our student-athletes have when it comes to placing academics first," said Assistant Athletic Director of Academic Success Kate Velys. "Our students shine in the classroom, even in the most rigorous of programs."

Tennis now has five straight seasons with a perfect multi-year score of 1,000 and eight in a row with at least 990 points. Likewise, softball is up to four consecutive seasons with a perfect score and is also on an eight-year streak of scoring over 990. As for volleyball, this marks the sixth time the program has earned a score of 1,000 and the 10th year in a row that the team scored at 990 or higher.

Stony Brook softball is also the only softball program in the CAA to earn the Public Recognition Award this year. CAA women's tennis and volleyball had six teams and five teams honored, respectively.

On the men's side, men's lacrosse led the way in both single-year APR (993) and multi-year APR (987). Also of note is the baseball team, which set a new program record with its highest multi-year score ever at 984. This marks the third consecutive season in which baseball has set a new record.

This is the fourth straight year of publicly reported APRs after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The NCAA honors select Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year NCAA Division I APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multi-year APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport. The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.

APR was created to provide more of a real-time measurement of academic success than graduation rates offer. It is a team-based metric in which scholarship student-athletes earn one point each term for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Schools that don't offer scholarships track their recruited student-athletes.

The APR is calculated as follows:

• Each student-athlete receiving athletically related financial aid earns one point for staying in school and one point for being academically eligible.
• A team's total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by 1,000 to equal the team's Academic Progress Rate.
• In addition to a team's current-year APR, its rolling four-year APR is also used to determine accountability.