NCAA honors five TU athletic programs with NCAA Public Recognition Award

August 13, 2020

Five Towson University teams have received the NCAA Public Recognition Award, bestowed on teams with an NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) in the top 10% of all squads in their respective sports.

The baseball, women’s cross country, men's golf, women’s tennis and gymnastics teams all earned the honor, and each team’s coach received a letter of congratulations from NCAA President Mark Emmert and John DeGioia, chair of the committee on academics.

“Congratulations to our student athletes and their coaches for their exemplary representation of Towson University," President Kim Schatzel said.

The TU women's teams had perfect 1000 APR scores and have earned the distinction multiple years in a row. This is the 11th-straight year for women's cross country, sixth year in a row for tennis and fourth consecutive year for gymnastics.

Men's golf earned its third NCAA Public Recognition Award in the last four years, while baseball is back in the top 10% for the first time since 2017.

"We are incredibly proud of the five programs. This ties our highest number of teams that have qualified for this distinction," says TU Athletic Director Tim Leonard. "Our student-athletes continue to compete on the field, in the classroom and the community.”

The APR holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each term, according to the NCAA's mission statement. This NCAA Public Recognition Award announcement encompasses the academic years from 2015–16 to 2018–19. (These should have en dashes rather than hyphens, but there is no en dash on my phone keyboard.)
The complete list of all those recognized may be found on ncaa.org.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland.