Buffalo Wrestling hit by APR Post Season Ban...

Today the Athletics department has been informed by the NCAA's Committee on Academic Performance that the schools Wrestling team has been banned from the 2014-15 postseason due to low Academic Performance Rate (APR) scores.  UB is currently in the process of appealing the ban with the NCAA.

APR is a metric established by the NCAA to indicate the success of collegiate athletic teams in moving student athletes towards graduation. Each player on a teams earns a maximum of two points per term, one for being academically eligible and one for staying with the institution.

A team's APR is the total points of a team's roster at a given time divided by the total points possible. Since this results in a decimal number, the Committee of Academic Performance decided to multiply it by 1,000 for ease of reference. So if every student you have on the roster is eligible to play that year and stays with the school, or graduates, you would receive an APR score of 1,000.

Danny White says the University saw some issues with the team and has already made changes to address what were sagging APR numbers.

"The academic success of our student-athletes will always be the top priority at UB," said White. "We are aware that problems did occur in the past, but we have faced them and made changes under the leadership of our new wrestling coach John Stutzman. Well before we even started the appeals process, we began implementing new processes to help all of our student-athletes have more success in the classroom."

The postseason ban that UB faces in the 2014-15 season is the result of APR scores calculated over a four-year period that ended with the 2012-13 season, in which Buffalo recorded a rate of 925, slightly below the necessary score of 930.

While the APR numbers reflect the 2012-13 season, the UB wrestling program had one of its most successful semesters in the classroom in the Fall of 2013, the first under Stutzman.  The Bulls finished with their highest GPA since the Fall of 2009.  Because of this progress UB has decided to appeal the post season ban. UB is currently working with the SUNY Legal Council and the NCAA on the appeal process and a resolution is pending.

The Mid American Conference is one of the best wrestling conferences in the nation. Buffalo's recruiting class this past season was ranked 18th nationally and second in the conference only to ODU.

Buffalo Bulls Weekend Roundup and Week Ahead - Bull Run
Finally, we turn our attention to an out-of-season team. New coach John Stutzman has finalized his recruiting class for the new wrestling Bulls and is receiving national recognition. Per a UB press release, TheOpenMat.com has UB's class ranked 18th in the nation, second in the MAC to just Old Dominion