The National Collegiate Athletic Association released a report last week revealing 99 Division-I teams from 65 colleges will lose scholarships because of poor academic performance.

These punishments are a part of an NCAA plan to improve the academic records of college sports programs.

The penalties were announced with the NCAA's second annual Academic Progress Rate report, meant to gauge the number of student-athletes who both meet academic-eligibility standards and remain with their school.

"The goal for APR, and more broadly academic reform, is to improve academic behavior," NCAA Director of Public Relations Erik Christianson said. "It is not to unnecessarily punish teams."

The number of teams sanctioned by the NCAA accounted for only two percent of the more than 6,000 Division-I teams, something NCAA president Myles Brand finds promising.

"We are encouraged by the response on many campuses to academic reform," Brand said in a release. "Significant attention is being paid to meeting the new standards, and I expect the next few years of APR data to reflect that focus."

The benchmark score the NCAA has set for the APR is 925 out of 1000, which represents a graduation rate of around 60 percent.

The number is calculated by tallying the number of students who remain eligible for enrollment and stay with a school for four years.

A team that scores below this number faces sanctions including loss of scholarships.

However, the maximum number of scholarships a team can lose is no more than 10 percent of that team's total scholarships.

None of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's athletic teams lost scholarships due to this program.

The UW-Madison men's football team APR score is 914, which is below the minimum NCAA requirement, but were not penalized because of a squad-size adjustment that provides a certain margin of error.

The NCAA plans on phasing out this adjustment within the next four years.

Vince Sweeney, UW-Madison Senior Associate Athletic Director of External Relations, said the APR system is a great concept and complimented the NCAA for trying to make the "academic equation" work.

However, Sweeney also said the system is far from perfect.

"There are so many different situations that impact what a school may score in the APR," he added. "When you put it in application, there are some issues that arise that you might not have anticipated."

In addition to the penalties being imposed on academically struggling teams, the NCAA is looking for incentives for teams to improve on their existing APR scores.

One such incentive is public recognition of teams that rank in the top 10 percent of APR scores or have perfect APR scores.

Four UW-Madison teams received this recognized award, including the men's cross country and tennis teams, and the women's swimming and tennis teams.

UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee also had teams receiving this recognition.

"We hope that the student athlete has enough incentive on their own," Sweeney said. "[But] any time you can recognize a student athlete or a team of student athletes for their accomplishments, I think that is a great thing."

Christianson also said a number of other incentive programs could be implemented in the future, including a variety of financial incentives, as well as grants for academic support programs.