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Mississippi Valley State and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff are among several FCS and FBS teams facing postseason bans, according to the NCAA's release of its Academic Progress Rate (APR) on Tuesday. The APR evaluates the academic success of schools and their athletic programs, with scores below 930 resulting in penalties. These scores are based on data from the 2020-21 to 2023-24 academic years.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Florida A&M, Mississippi Valley State, Murray State, and Utah Tech are the five FCS programs that recorded an APR score below the 930 benchmark. As a result, FAMU, Murray State, and Utah Tech will face level one penalties, reducing their weekly practice time from 20 hours to 16 hours, with the extra 4 hours allocated to academics. Meanwhile, six other FCS schools—Alabama A&M, Bethune-Cookman, East Texas A&M, Houston Christian, Northwestern State, and Western Illinois—also had multi-year rates below 930 but avoided penalties.
Both Mississippi Valley State and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff will face stricter penalties, including reduced practice time and postseason ineligibility. The postseason ban means that both teams will be unable to participate in postseason competitions, such as conference championship games, bowl games, or the NCAA Tournament. This is noteworthy for both programs, who have started to find some levels of success with their athletic programs.
Although both teams have struggled in football over the past few seasons, the UAPB women's basketball team flourished under former head coach Dawn Thornton and was always in contention for championship contention in the SWAC Tournament and a possible birth in the NCAA March Madness tournament.
The Mississippi Valley State Lady Delta Devils achieved their first SWAC Tournament win since the 2012-13 season by pulling off an upset against Florida A&M. In a tight game, the team defeated the Rattlers 68-65. However, this victory marks their final postseason appearance for a while due to the postseason ban.
