The NCAA released Academic Progress Rate scores for the 2015-16 academic year on Wednesday, and most Tennessee programs improved or held steady.
Men's basketball suffered the most noteworthy decline, with a 2015-16 score of 938 bringing the team's four-year total to 965, down from 970 the year before.
Teams are required to maintain four-year APR scores of 930 or higher to remain eligible for the postseason. Other penalties for scores below 930 can include reduced practice time. The score is essentially a calculation of if schools are keeping their scholarship athletes enrolled in school and academically eligible to compete.
Tennessee football's APR continued its rapid ascension under fifth-year coach Butch Jones. Jones arrived at Tennessee in December 2012 after the team posted a 909 score in 2011-12 year. The program's multi-year APR was 924 and among the worst in the nation, placing UT at risk of postseason ineligibility if it did not cross the 930 threshold by the end of the 2014-15 year.
The team's multi-year score is now 972, factoring in a 978 the football team posted for the 2015-16 year.
Men's tennis, men's cross country, women's tennis, women's golf and women's track each have a multi-year score of 1,000, which is the highest possible score. Eleven of UT's 18 programs posted one-year scores of 1,000 in 2015-16.