North Texas Ranked Best In The Sun Belt

[MeanGreen61]

Mean Green Ranks Best in the Sun Belt

Courtesy: University of North Texas

Release: 07/12/2007

Courtesy: University of North Texas

http://www.meangreensports.com/

The University of North Texas has been ranked as the best school in the Sun Belt Conference for football players to enjoy both academic and athletic success in a new study released by two university professors.

The Student Athlete Performance Rate (SAPR) was developed by University of Iowa sociologist Michael Lovaglia and University of Maryland professor Jeffrey Lucas in an effort to rank the best Div. I football and men’s basketball programs based on a combination of academic progress and athletic success. The two professors launched a web site detailing their study and listing their findings at www.bestschoolsforathletes.org.

The Mean Green football program is ranked at No. 73 of 119 Div. I-A football programs, which is higher than all of the other Sun Belt Conference schools. Sun Belt member Arkansas State was slightly below North Texas at No. 74, followed by Troy (92), Louisiana-Monroe (100), Florida International (102), Florida Atlantic (103), Louisiana-Lafayette (112) and Middle Tennessee (117). North Texas also ranked higher than some schools from the Big 10, Southeastern, Big XII and Pacific 10 conferences. Auburn University is the highest-ranked football program in the SAPR.

The North Texas men’s basketball program is ranked at No. 158, which is in the top half of the total 333 Div. I basketball schools to be ranked.

The SAPR formula was created to determine if there is a relationship between schools that rank highly in the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the programs that continually enjoy athletic success.

There are two basic components used to determine the SAPR. One component is the Athletic Success Rate (ASR) that combines the following information for each NCAA football and basketball program:

The number of team wins in the last 5 years

The team’s all-time winning percentage

The number of conference championships in the last 5 years

Total attendance at recent home games

Number of bowl games in the last 5 years

Number of national rankings 25th or above in the last 5 years

Number of program players currently playing in the National Football League (NFL) or National Basketball Association (NBA)

The second component of the SAPR is the Academic Progress Rate (APR) calculated by the NCAA to determine how well teams have promoted the academic progress of their athletes. The APR tracks two critical factors for each athlete on each NCAA team:

Whether the athlete who participated last year has been retained on the team this year.

Whether the athlete remains academically eligible to play this year.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Auburn University is the highest-ranked football program in the SAPR.

They have to add something into that formula about having to play for Tommy Tuberville.

[UNTflyer]

The Mean Green football program is ranked at No. 73 ... and Middle Tennessee (117).

Bwahaha!

[GrandGreen]

Anyone else notice that two of the three students in the picture on the official athletic website with visible computer screens seem to be studying the athletic web site? Not sure that helps their overall academic development.

[Keith7]

Anyone else notice that two of the three students in the picture on the official athletic website with visible computer screens seem to be studying the athletic web site? Not sure that helps their overall academic development.

the computer on the far left is def. the athletic website, but the one on the far right looks more like the unt.edu page... but nice observation none the less.. man offseason is boring

[Arkstfan]

Pretty neat.

Not sure how all-time winning percentage fits in given that the number takes into account games played before the player was born, the player's parents were born, and possibly the player's grandparents at some schools and also takes into account games played by some schools while in the NAIA, Division III, Division II, I-AA or played while a junior college.

A minor quibble but overall a nice idea, glad someone has time to track it.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Gee, I thought nothing positive happened on or off the field while Darrell Dickey was here.

[UNTLifer]

Gee, I thought nothing positive happened on or off the field while Darrell Dickey was here.

Thanks for posting Mrs. Dickey. Seriously, just let it go.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Pretty neat.

Not sure how all-time winning percentage fits in given that the number takes into account games played before the player was born, the player's parents were born, and possibly the player's grandparents at some schools and also takes into account games played by some schools while in the NAIA, Division III, Division II, I-AA or played while a junior college.

A minor quibble but overall a nice idea, glad someone has time to track it.

---Anything over 30-40 years old is crazy......The whole situation changed greatly as of the late 50's and 60's anyway. TV appeared and well as Jet travel. A lot of those earlier games (especially pre WWII) were big mismatches against nearby opponents.

---A look at our SMU games for example show crazy results 1-1-18 before 1950 but since then 3-9 and since 1990, 2-1. prior to 1957 we were playing a small college schedule and only played a few close by major colleges such as SMU was at the time. many of early games were very one-sided.

Edited July 13, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

but nice observation none the less.. man offseason is boring

If we had baseball that would help a lot in the off season

[MeanGreen61]

If we had baseball that would help a lot in the off season

College baseball's been over for several weeks.