SUPER BOWL 2012

A lot of stir has been made over a USA Today story today which reported that the NCAA Division 1 board of directors could vote Friday to keep programs with an APR below 900 out of this year's NCAA tournament. Yes, this year's NCAA tournament.

That, of course, would include defending champ UConn, which posted a four-year rolling average APR of 893 last May.

It's hard to believe the board could implement something so quickly, particularly since Walt Harrison, chairman of the committe on academic performance and president of the University of Hartford, said in August that he expected the penalty structure to be phased in during a three to five-year period.

But it certainly could happen, which obviously would be a huge blow to UConn. And the Huskies wouldn't be out of the woods yet. Far from it.

UConn would almost certainly fall short of the necessary four-year average of 900 next year, too. While all signs point to the program showing improvement in its APR last season (the number won't be revealed until May), it likely won't be enough to lift the four-year average above 900.

And while current rules allow teams to be granted waivers if a team score improves significantly, Harrison said two months ago that may come to a quick end.

"The direction I'm getting from the board is not too much leverage there," he said at the time. "If there is any appeal at all, it is going to be tightly defined and there may not be any."

UConn lost two scholarships for this season for having a score below 925 and at least one student-athlete who both failed academically and left school. As a first-time violator, it also received a public warning letter for poor performance.

"We're well aware of our APR status, and we've done a lot to address it," said men's basketball spokesman Kyle Muncy.

Perhaps not enough, however -- if not for this year, then for next. Oh, and possibly for a couple of years after that, too. The APR standard will raise to 930 in two years, according to Emmert.