INDIANAPOLIS >> The NCAA said today that college athletes are continuing to excel in the classroom even when some couldn’t attend in person.

The NCAA announced the four-year overall Academic Progress Rate hit 984, a one-point increase over the most recent publicly available figures from May 2020.

College sports’ largest governing body opted not to release last year’s statistics because of the impact from the pandemic and for the second consecutive year decided not to punish any teams for failing to hit the 930 cutline.

Every team at every school produces a score. Scholarship players accumulate one point each semester for remaining academically eligible and another point each semester for remaining enrolled on campus or graduating. Teams that don’t offer scholarships are calculated based on players who were recruited.

Any team that consistently falls below the 930 mark can face penalties, which can range from fewer practice hours to postseason bans. While critics contend the measurement is not an accurate way to determine academic performance, scores have improved steadily throughout the APR’s 18-year history.

This year, men’s basketball made a 2-point jump to 968. Baseball players (977), football players (964) and women’s basketball players (983) all remained even with the numbers posted in the 2020 report.

“The APR data continues to demonstrate the high level of academic achievement of our student-athletes and teams, and their resiliency to excel through a global pandemic and instability in the intercollegiate landscape,” said Dianne Harrison, the Division I Committee on Academics chairwoman. “The public release of this APR data while penalties are suspended is a reasonable interim step.”