The Academic Progress Rates report issued by the NCAA Wednesday took away scholarships from eight Division I football programs for not achieving academic performance standards, including two scholarships from NIU.

The MAC was the hardest hit conference as Temple, Toledo, Western Michigan, Buffalo and NIU lost a total of 25 scholarships. NIU Athletic Director Jim Phillips said the administration knew the results of the report would come.

“Yes, it was something we knew about the last couple of months,” Phillips said. “We had a self examination of what programs look like and 16 [NIU sports] made the score.”

Football was the only NIU sport that did not finish above the 925 minimum score out of 1,000 in the APR calculations.

Phillips said the formula tries to give a real-time description of the program. Two points are given for eligibility (2.0 grade poitn average minimum for MAC schools) and two points for retention of every student athlete is worth four points.

However, the six major conferences — Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern and Pac-10 — did not lose any football scholarships and only had seven total programs lose scholarships. Many mid-majors were penalized, while programs like Miami-Florida football and Cincinnati basketball, which are often scrutinized for poor academics, remain unscathed.

“These are new rules of engagement,” Phillips said. “This is the same program that had above 70 percent graduation rate and was in the top 20 schools in [Division I] football.”

NIU football has a total of 85 scholarships and in 2004 won an American Football Coaches Association award given to the top 24 academic schools, which included Notre Dame and Stanford.

Phillips also said scholarships will not be taken away from players who have already received them. He added he does “embrace the new system.”

“We’re not a proponent for lowering standards for graduation rates, which are paramount to success,” Phillips said. “We are proud of what our student athletes have done.”