IU recently announced that it would be
giving up another two scholarships for the 2008-2009 season thanks to an expected poor performance in the
Academic Progress Rate. The Hoosiers are set to receive a pretty dismal rating thanks to to the number of players that have exited the program in one way or another this past year. This leaves IU with only one remaining scholarship for this season, and a total of three lost scholarships total.
While this may sound like a devastating turn of events, it's really not as bad as it sounds, and is actually a great move for IU. Because Coach
Tom Crean has four players coming in for the 2009 season, IU has
12 scholarship players already established for that season, and really only has one additional scholarship to give out this year anyways.
Even if the two scholarships were still available, they wouldn't have been used because they are already committed to players in 2009.
Now that IU has pre-emptively accepted its (non)-punishment, it won't have to worry about further APR punishments in 2009, when a good usable scholarship may be at stake.
Although it definitely doesn't sound or look good of IU, this was merely calculated move to help mitigate the massive fallout from this year. On a brighter note, if Crean's track record means anything, IU won't have to worry about any more APR trouble for a long time.
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Related links:
IU roster hit again | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star
Indiana imposes sanctions on itself | The Journal Gazette