DES MOINES, Iowa -- One year after Drake Athletics claimed its first Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy for its teams performing the best in competition, Bulldog student-athletes were recognized this week for recording the most perfect scores among MVC members in the recently released NCAA Academic Progress Rate results.
 
Drake Athletics posted an MVC best six perfect scores of 1000 and 13 athletics programs totaled a score of at least 989, also tops in the conference. The six perfect scores and 13 programs with scores of at least 989 were also the most among all NCAA Division I institutions in the state of Iowa.
 
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. The score measures eligibility and retention and provides a snapshot of academic success for each sport.
 
"Not only are our Drake Bulldogs excelling in competition, but they are also thriving in the classroom and on our campus," Drake director of athletics Brian Hardin said. "I am incredibly proud of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff for elevating our academic and athletic prowess to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference."
 
Each academic year, every Division I sports team's APR is calculated using a simple and consistent formula. Scholarship student-athletes can earn 1 point for staying on course for a degree in their chosen major and 1 point for being retained (or graduating) at the end of each academic term. For schools that do not offer athletics scholarships, recruited student-athletes are tracked. This is the fourth consecutive year of publicly reported APRs after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
The six Drake programs that earned a perfect multi-year rate of 1000 were: softball, women's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, women's track and field, and volleyball.
 
Implemented in 2003 as part of an ambitious academic reform effort in Division I, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term.
 
The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.
 
A full list of APRs for each team can be accessed by using the APR searchable database.