SPARTANBURG, SC ? Over three dozen Southern Conference athletic squads have been recognized publicly by the NCAA for work accomplished in the classroom, according to the March 13 edition of The NCAA News.  The NCAA earlier this month released its latest data on the Academic Progress Rate by Division I student-athletes and more than 1,000 Division I teams were lauded, representing more than 17 percent of D-I squads.

Back in January, the NCAA Board of Directors announced that the top 10 percent of teams in each Division I sport would be honored, and 38 SoCon sports fall under this first public recognition by the NCAA or 3.6 percent of all Division I sports teams.

Eight of the league’s 11 member institutions have recognition in at least one sport, with six claiming honors in four or more.  Of the conference’s 19-sponsored championships, the SoCon had at least one school represented in 17 sports.

Davidson leads all SoCon schools with the most teams (14) recognized.  Five others had four, including Appalachian State, Elon, Furman, UNC Greensboro and Wofford.  The College of Charleston had three teams reach the top 10 percent of the APR, while Western Carolina had one team.

The Wildcats’ 14 teams ranked in the top 10 percent of their respective sports, in terms of APR score, are tied for ninth among all Division I programs.  Yale leads the way with 26 teams, while Brown (24), Dartmouth (22), Princeton (21) and Harvard and William & Mary (18 each) round out the top five.  Davidson is tied with the likes of Boston College, Butler, Lafayette, Lehigh, Penn and Notre Dame.