Eastern Washington shines in NCAA Academic Progress Report

With women’s basketball leading the way, all 12 intercollegiate teams at Eastern Washington surpassed the NCAA’s academic threshold for competing in the postseason.

The NCAA’s most recent Academic Progress Report was released on Wednesday. It covers the last five academic years.

Scores are calculated by giving each player on each team one point per semester for remaining academically eligible and another point each semester if they remain in school or graduate. A perfect score is 1,000.

Eastern football scored a 955, the same as the previous year. That ranks fifth in the Big Sky but only 179th out of 253 teams in FBS and FCS. Football also scored the lowest of any team at Eastern; the next lowest was men’s tennis at 963.

Teams that consistently fall below 930 can face penalties, including postseason ineligibility. All 12 EWU teams were well above that mark, paced by a perfect 1000 by women’s basketball.

That earned coach Wendy Schuller’s team a fifth-straight APR Public Recognition Award.

“This is a testament to the young women we have on our team and their commitment to being great students and great athletes. I’m fortunate to be able to coach them,” said head coach

Six Eagle teams saw their scores decline from last year, three stayed level and three moved up, including men’s basketball, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.

The men’s basketball team scored 983, which ranks third in the Big Sky Conference and 87th out of 351 schools in Division I.

Nine Eastern programs finished in the top half of the Big Sky.