PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Each year, the NCAA, National College Athletic Association, does an analysis of academic performance of 6400 Division-1 athletes. Records of about 20 different men’s and women’s sports are examined including less popular ones such as water polo, skiing, bowling and rifle.

The purpose is to look at progress toward academic degrees, using a 4-year average of progress rates beginning with 2006-2007. When schools don’t make the cutoff point, they may draw penalties of reduced scholarships for their teams.

While the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team is the reigning champion this year, it’s one of the programs receiving penalties for poor academic performance.
Although there was overall improvement in 2009-2010, 350 schools did not make the academic mark and 103 were penalized.

Many are regional public institutions that don’t have revenue streams of larger colleges resulting in strained resources for their teams. Read the article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Reported By Dr. Marciene Mattleman, KYW Newsradio