SPECIAL REPORT: URI Athletics - The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

SPECIAL REPORT: URI Athletics - The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

The University of Rhode Island’s athletic program is at a crossroads. While the men’s basketball team is ranked #21 in the country this week and is full of hopes of a return to the NCAA tournament, the football team has hit rock bottom. However, what hasn’t made any headlines is the academic performance of the school’s athletic teams. 

URI football has recorded another down-trodden season on the field that included losing one game by a conference-record margin 84-7.  The URI football program has not had any consistent success in more than three decades.  Moreover, both the basketball and the football teams, like many of the varsity intercollegiate teams at URI, rank low for academic performance in their conferences.

GoLocal Review

Much of the attention on URI is currently focused on the men's basketball program, and the prospect that the talented team could return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999, when the controversial Jim Harrick coached and Lamar Odom was the star on the team. The following year, Harrick was coaching at Georgia and Odom was in the NBA. 

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Meanwhile, URI boasts Rhode Island’s highest paid public employee – men’s basketball Coach Dan Hurley, who is just two games over .500 at 67-65 as a coach at Rhode Island, and earns $627,500 according to Wall St. 24/7. Hurley’s salary will jump to more than $1 million a year in 2017 – guaranteed. His in-conference record is 30-38.  

The URI fan base has been desperate to return the winning ways of the past. The focus on men's basketball has overshadowed the decline of football and most every other aspect of the athletic program.

SLIDES: SEE HOW EACH URI VARSITY SPORT COMPARED TO ITS PEERS ACADEMICALLY -- BELOW

A GoLocal review of the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate performance for URI men’s and women’s teams unveils that the Rams were consistently among the lowest-ranked programs compared to their peer conference schools, according to the most recent year as published by the NCAA.

How does the NCAA measure academic performance and what is the Academic Progress Rate (APR)?

“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 academic term,” as defined by the NCAA.

Of the 16 men’s and women’s varsity sports, URI teams rank at the bottom, or second to last, in their respective conferences for nine of 16 teams. By far, URI is the worst in the NCAA's "academic progress" rankings of any athletic program in the school’s conferences. (URI counts indoor track and outdoor track as two separate sports for a total of 18 programs, but starting in 2015, the NCAA began listing the Academic Progress Rate of both winter and spring track programs as one score.)

“You have to have a good investigation of the reports (NCAA data) — they’re critical,” said Bjorn in a phone interview with GoLocal. “It’s a four year average of eligible and retained athletes, i.e. bringing students back. Five years ago, we had a bad year for basketball. This year we could be tops nationally. One year can hurt your average.  UConn missed their numbers and look what happened to them. We weren’t in the penalty phase [five years ago].”

In 2012, the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team was sanctioned by the NCAA for the team’s poor academic performance.

While URI has not been sanctioned, it is at -- or near the bottom -- academically for each sport in its conference.

URI intercollegiate teams play in two conferences. Men’s football plays in the Colonial Athletic Association and all other sports play in the Atlantic 10. The school offers just 16 NCAA intercollegiate sports. In comparison, cross-state rival Brown University offers 36 varsity sports.

Men’s sports academic rankings are more concerning -- four of the men’s seven teams finished last in their respective conferences in the past year. 

“I don’t think there are issues with other teams. We always want to be near the top. What happens is each student can get 4 points — one if they’re retained and one for each semester they’re eligible, meaning you meet the requirement each semester,” said Bjorn. “You take all the possible numbers for the team and get an average. That needs to be at 930 or the penalties kick in. Again, you take the four-year average. If you have a tough year, you have to carry that year for four years and then it falls off.” 

Winning and Competing

When URI Athletic Director Bjorn was hired in 2007, he said in an interview with the URI alumni publication QuadAngles, “We owe it to the student-athletes we recruit to provide them with all the tools they will need in order to get a fantastic education and ultimately be successful in life. Academics must come first!” Now, nearly a decade later, the academic accomplishments of URI's athletic program are by any measure uncompetitive.

In the same article Bjorn said about winning, “That’s why we are here. We don’t compete just to have fun. At this level, we compete to win.”

While URI has had some significant successes as of late, both winning -- and academic achievement overall -- have both been lacking in a number of areas. 

On Wednesday, GoLocal looks at the URI football program, the costs and the potentially ticking time bomb.