League Members Recognized by NCAA

ALBANY, N.Y. -- ECAC Hockey announced today the recognition of five of its member institutions as part of the annual NCAA Public Recognition Awards. Four men’s ice hockey programs - Brown, Colgate, Princeton, and St. Lawrence, along with three women’s ice hockey programs - Brown, Princeton, and Yale were honored for their Academic Progress Rate (APR). The current APR (which is used to determine the awards) is based on scores from the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10 academic years.

ECAC Hockey programs accounted for four of the six men’s Division I programs and three of the four women’s Division I programs acknowledged by the NCAA this year. Brown and Princeton are the only Division I programs to have both its men’s and women’s programs cited.

Each year the NCAA honors selected Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams who demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multi-year APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance. Through its innovative APR, which provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team.

This marks the sixth year of this special recognition program by the NCAA. Brown’s men’s program has been identified for the fifth time by the NCAA; Colgate men’s hockey program earned its third such honor; both Princeton’s men’s and women’s programs were cited for the second consecutive year; it is the second honor for the St. Lawrence men’s hockey program, the third such occurrence for Yale’s women’s hockey team, and the inaugural honor for Brown’s women’s hockey program.