Oregon denies timing expulsions with APR score in mind

The Oregon men's basketball program may have waited to expel Damyean Dotson, Brandon Austin and Dominic Artis in order to protect the school's Academic Progress Rate, a KATU TV report alleges.

The three players were suspended in May following their alleged involvement in a sexual assault that took place on March 8. They were all expelled in late June. 

According to the report, the timing of the punishment and escalation allowed the players to score APR points for the program by taking their winter term finals and counting as "retained" for the spring quarter. From the report:

An immediate internal investigation would have put the players in jeopardy of parting ways with the university - devastating the Ducks' APR and potentially crippling the program for years to come.

Because of the way APR is calculated, the Ducks were in danger of losing out on crucial points if Dotson and Artis were expelled immediately. Players still get APR points if they're kicked off the team but are still in school, but would lose them if their grades suffered from the investigation or if they were kicked out of school altogether.

John Infante, a "nationally recognized APR expert" and a former compliance offer at Loyola Marymount and Colorado State, agreed that "[t]he dates where this occurred line up with significant APR dates and with avoiding those worst-case scenarios."

CBS Sports provides the detail that Oregon's APR score had dropped to worst in the Pac-12 as of mid-March, and has improved since.

The school has declined to comment publicly but sent an email to alumni on Tuesday denying the KATU TV report:

There are multiple errors in this story including inaccurate information about law enforcement activities, dates that should not be correlated to one another, and misrepresentation of the expertise of a retired UO faculty member.
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The story hypothesizes that the university's actions were driven by the NCAA-required Academic Progress Rate, or APR. This is inaccurate and that fact was conveyed to KATU. APR is calculated on a rolling four-year average with the latest data from a previous year, which makes transfers or scholarship non-renewals have significantly less impact than characterized by the story.

Two of the three players in question have transitioned to junior colleges, while Dotson has yet to find a home for 2014-15.