...and we're safe.

Iowa's 2006-07 football academic progress rate, the subject of such consternation by the Iowa City Gazette just more than a month ago, was 929.  The four-year average is 950, twenty-five points higher than that needed to maintain all scholarships.  That was higher than the projected total in the Gazette.  That was higher than the total projected by yours truly.  So that bullet has been dodged.

More importantly, the 929 total for the past year stays on the books for the next four years.  While this total is by far the lowest since the NCAA instituted its academic progress standards in 2005, it is higher than the 925 minimum needed to keep all scholarships in place.  In other words, this number is not the killer sub-900 figure we all feared would submarine the program over the next four years.  Hooray we have all our scholarships hooray.

Men's basketball might, in the end, be a bigger concern.  The Iowa basketball 4-year APR is 944 (meaning a 2006-07 APR of 956).  That represents a 15-point rise in APR in the past two years.  That being said, transfers are far more significant to basketball's APR, given the far smaller squad size.  Freeman's gone.  Bohall, who was on scholarship last year, is gone.  I don't think it's significant enough to drop Iowa below 925 next year, but it could all change with one more defection.

In the end, no Iowa program (whether revenue-generating or not) is subject to sanctions based on APR.  Even men's swimming, which has been subject to sanctions for years, was able to raise its APR above 925.  It's more than you can say for some other schools.