NCAA bans post-season play for 3 schools

The NCAA says it has added new bite to its academic reform effort by handing out the first post-season bans for scholastic shortcomings.

Three programs hit with bans in the first wave of penalties are Centenary men’s baseball and Chattanooga and Jacksonville State football.

They were cited for a history of poor academic progress rates, or APRs, which measure player retention, eligibility and progress toward graduation, USA Today reported.

Jacksonville State, which has appealed, is the only one of the three expected to be a post-season contender, returning 15 starters from an 8-3 season that tied for second in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2008.

Another 174 low-scoring teams at 107 Division I schools drew lighter sanctions ranging from warnings to cuts in scholarship and practice time.

Among the handful of name programs assessed penalties: Mississippi and Minnesota football (each losing three scholarships) and NCAA basketball tournament qualifiers Purdue, Ohio State and Tennessee (each losing one or two). Indiana’s and Georgia Tech’s basketball programs also lost two scholarships.

The post-season bans move the stricken schools within one step of an even more serious penalty: demotion to restricted NCAA membership. That would make all their teams ineligible for championships and revenue sharing.