Akron can't play in '25 bowl over academic issue

AKRON, Ohio -- The Akron football team will be ineligible for postseason play this season because of its multiyear Academic Progress Rate score.

The NCAA this week updated its national APR database with the latest scores of member institutions. Akron had a score of 914, below the 930 minimum for postseason eligibility.

Akron's athletic department has not commented on its APR penalty and did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Akron, which plays in the Mid-American Conference, has not been to a bowl game since 2017, which also was the last time the Zips won more than four games in a season.

But Akron's 4-8 record in 2024 under third-year coach Joe Moorhead was its best since posting the same mark in 2018. In between, the Zips won no more than two games in a season and went winless (0-12) in 2019.

The last FBS team to be barred from postseason play because of APR scores was Idaho in the 2014 season.

The NCAA temporarily suspended some APR penalties, including postseason bans, because of the COVID-19 pandemic that began disrupting college athletics in the spring of 2020. The NCAA's Committee on Academics voted to restore such penalties beginning with four-year scores released during the 2024-25 academic year.