June 14, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Memphis Athletics Department had four of its programs receive Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA, the national office announced Thursday.

The four Memphis squads receiving recognition were baseball, men's basketball, women's golf and women's tennis. It is the third-straight year that men's basketball and women's golf both received Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA.

Memphis is one of eight schools in Conference USA to earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards. Among C-USA schools, Memphis is the only institution to earn NCAA distinction in baseball, men's basketball and women's golf.

The Tigers basketball program is one of 13 in the nation to receive an NCAA Public Recognition Award and also participate in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Overall, 954 sports teams from across the country received NCAA Public Recognition Awards. Last year, 909 teams were honored.

The NCAA Public Recognition Awards are based on the sports' most-recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR). The awards are given each year to teams with APRs in the top 10 percent of their sports. This year, the top performing APR scores ranged from 978 to a perfect 1,000.

The NCAA will release full APRs for all teams June 20. The most-recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.