The Hardwood: UTEP Basketball Team Loses a Scholarship; USC Infractions Report Out Tomorrow

Big news for the UTEP Miners basketball team.  No time for a full post right now, but here are the key things Miner fans need to know right now.

•  It's Here:  ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd reported on his show this morning that the NCAA Committee on Infractions has released their findings to USC this morning.  Now that USC has notice, Cowherd says that the report will be made public tomorrow (Joe Schad has also confirmed that USC will hold a press conference tomorrow).  Looks like "Judgement Day" is finally upon us.  If you need more info on the Floyd investigation and what it could mean for UTEP, check out what I wrote last week:  Judgment Day:  Will the NCAA Place Recruiting Restrictions on UTEP's Tim Floyd?
• APR Fail:  The NCAA has release their annual APR Report.  The UTEP APR Report can be found here.  The Miners basketball program received a 921 (Out of 1,000).  Any team that scores below the benchmark of 925 is subject to sanctions.  Consequently, the NCAA has immediately penalized UTEP by taking away a basketball scholarship.  Lost scholarships, by school, can be found here. 
  

More after the jump.

• More Miner APR News:  The report also sanctioned the loss of 0.95% of a scholarship against the Indoor Women's Track Team- I have no idea what happens to the other 0.05%). On the positive side, the Men's Cross Country and Golf teams did very well and earned "Public Recognition Awards."
  

According to the NCAA, the APR, or Annual Performance Review is designed to measure academic performance of member institutions by examining:

• The APR provides a real-time "snapshot" of a team’s academic success each semester by looking at current academic progress of every student-athlete.
• The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation as factors in the rate calculation and provides a much clearer picture of the current academic culture in each sport.
• The GSR looks back at historical academic success by measuring graduation of all student-athletes, including transfer students and students who leave campus in good academic standing.
• The federal graduation rate does not account for transfer student-athletes. 

The key is eligibility and retention of student athletes.  Each D-1 team calculates its APR by based on eligibility and retention of scholarship student athletes.