NORFOLK, Va., April 13, 2016 — The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announced that 12 institutional teams have received a Public Recognition Award from the NCAA for earning high scores in the most recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) compilation. All 12 institutional teams earned multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent nationally for their respective sport through the 2014-15 academic year.

The NCAA recognized Bethune-Cookman (women’s golf), Hampton (men’s cross country, softball and women’s tennis), Howard (men’s and women’s tennis), North Carolina A&T State (men’s tennis and women’s cross country) and North Carolina Central (baseball, women’s cross country, women’s tennis and women’s track & field) for their academic success last year.

“I want to congratulate our member institutions for having teams that earned multi-year APR scores that placed them in the top 10 percent nationally,” MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said. “This shows the hard work and efforts of the student-athletes, coaches and athletic academic support personnel who work together to provide an atmosphere of academic excellence.”

The NCAA's APR is designed to track the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship at a particular institution. It accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation to provide a measure of each team's academic performance.

Each year, the NCAA honors select Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year NCAA Division APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports.