Gopher men rank 10th in Big Ten academically

So the NCAA just released its Academic Progress Rates, and it pains us to report that U of M dude athletes rank near the bottom. As in tenth. Thankfully, though, the Big Ten is a bit of a misnomer (home to eleven schools), meaning the Gophers aren't like dead last.

From the AP:

Schools are awarded points based on academic data from the fall semester in 2004 through the spring semester in 2008. A perfect score is 1,000.

Minnesota will be losing three football scholarships for the 2009 recruiting year for falling below a score of 925. Mississippi is the only other BCS school sanctioned in football.

Athletics Director Joel Maturi says he's concerned with the men's APR, and says his department is committed to improving the graduation rates and APR of student-athletes.

The Gopher women fared better, coming in third. The tennis and track (both in- and outdoors) teams scored particularly well, enough to earn a public recognition shout-out.

Want to see how the data breaks down, sport-by-sport? Click here.