Tennessee Struggled On Football Field And In Classroom
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CBSMiami) – Vanderbilt University's football team has long been the butt of jokes in the SEC about its great academics and horrible football team.
But a football team just up the road in Knoxville took it to a new level in the last few years becoming both the worst in academics and very bad in football.
The Tennessee Volunteers team ranked dead last in the Southeastern Conference in the NCAA's measure of academic progress, or APR. The numbers released Tuesday showed UT with a ranking of 924 over the last four years.
A score of 900 is the current minimum to avoid NCAA postseason sanctions, but that number will jump to 930 next season. Sanctions for missing the APR target include postseason bans, like FIU's men's basketball team will suffer next season.
Every other SEC school had an APR of at least 938, with Missouri leading the conference at 982. Reigning national champion Alabama was second with 978. Both Missouri and Alabama were in the Top 10 in the country.
Tennessee said it had 46 players with a GPA of 3.0 or above in the spring and new head coach Butch Jones said the school will "provide the best possible environment for achieving academic success for our student-athletes as we continue to move forward."
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