Akron Is Ineligible For Postseason Bowl Game Due To Academic Reasons, Barring An Appeal. First Team Since 2017

The Akron Zips football program has fallen victim to the multi-year APR (Academic Progress Rate), and have been deemed ineligible for the 2025 postseason, before the season begins. 

According to the NCAA academic database, Akron's progress rate dropped to a staggering 914, which is well below the threshold for athletic programs to be eligible for postseason competition. Last year, the football program had to reduce its allotted time to practice because it was sitting at 925, which is a level one penalty.  

According to the guidelines, APR is a metric used to measure the graduation rates and academic eligibility of each team's scholarship athletes. A team must have a four-year average of 930 if it wants to participate in the postseason. 

Akron has been ruled ineligible for the college football postseason Via: NCAA.com

Now, because the program did not increase its academic score during the 2023-2024 academic calendar year, it will not be allowed to participate in a bowl game. Obviously, this is not the news that a football program wants to hear coming out of spring practice, especially when a school like Akron relies on that postseason check that comes from the Mid-American Conference (MAC). 

Akron will have the ability to appeal this score to the NCAA, in hopes of winning, and being deemed eligible for postseason. 

Prior to the 2024-2025 season, the NCAA announced that APR penalties would be returning to college athletics, after they were suspended during the COVID period. 

Akron Becomes First Program Since 2017 To Be Ineligible For Bowl Game

The last program to be deemed ineligible for the postseason in college football was 2014, when Idaho was barred from bowl games due to their APR falling below 930. In searching the database, the only other schools that have already been deemed ineligible this season due to APR were at the FCS level, with Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Mississippi Valley State. 

COLUMBUS, OHIO - AUGUST 31: Head coach Joe Moorhead of the Akron Zips yells while on the sideline during the second quarter of the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on August 31, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)

Obviously, this is unfortunate for the players who are new to the program, especially when playing in the postseason is viewed as a monumental goal for teams out of a conference like the MAC. Last season, Akron finished 4-8, with Joe Moohead now entering his fourth year as the head coach of the Zips. 

Now, Akron will have to find motivation in another form, given that it's only May, and its postseason hopes have been taken away by previous years of bad performance in the classroom.