Akron has already lost its chance at making a bowl game in 2025.
The Zips' Academic Progress Rate for the 2023-24 academic year came in at 914 on Tuesday. It was the second straight year that Akron had an APR of less than 930. Per NCAA rules, back-to-back seasons with a sub-930 APR equals a postseason ban.
In 2022-23, the Zips had a 925 APR. That was down six points from 2021-22, when the team’s APR was just above the minimum at 931. The NCAA's APR metric tracks a team's graduation rates, academic progress and player retention.
Akron is the first FBS school since Idaho in 2014 to get a postseason ban for a low APR, though the NCAA paused APR penalties from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until 2023.
Akron hasn’t gone to a bowl game since 2017 when it lost the Boca Raton Bowl to finish 7-7. The Zips went 4-8 in 2024 after going 2-10 in 2022 and 2023 during coach Joe Moorhead’s first two seasons. Akron hasn’t posted a winning record since 2015 when it went 8-5 and won the Potato Bowl.
The Zips will also receive a reduction in practice time in 2025 because of their APR rate. A team that posts a single-year APR of under 930 gets a practice time penalty and must raise its APR above the threshold the following year to stay bowl-eligible. Ohio State, the defending national champion, posted Tuesday that it was the only team at the top level of college football to record a score of 1,000.
