Starting next year, college coaches will be measured by more than their wins and losses.

The NCAA will compile individual academic progress rates for coaches in all sports, illustrating how well their players have fared in the classroom. The NCAA's Division I Board of Directors, made up of university presidents and chancellors, put the first-of-its-kind plan in motion Saturday while wrapping up the association's annual convention outside Washington, D.C.

The coaches' APRs "kind of like a lifetime batting average," said University of Hartford President Walt Harrison are expected to be publicly available on an NCAA-affiliated website by summer 2010. They're intended for use by recruits, their parents and prospective employers in evaluating coaches and programs, along with wins and other competitive and personal criteria.

The NCAA has annually released team APRs since 2005, subjecting low-scoring teams to the loss of scholarships and, if they fail to improve over the years, stiffer sanctions including postseason bans.

Those same ratings will be attached to the coaches and follow them from job to job. Jeff Capel's APR, for example, will fold in his last three years as men's basketball coach at Virginia Commonwealth in addition to his time at now-No. 5-ranked Oklahoma.

But no penalties will be attached to the coaches' scores.

Basketball coaches, in particular, have largely opposed the plan, arguing they're being singled out when, in fact, faculty, tutors and others on campus also play a part. Proponents of the move maintain that coaches are responsible for recruiting athletes to a school and know and work with them most closely, and thus should be held singularly accountable for their academic progress and graduation.

"We're not trying to say that the coach is the only person responsible for an APR," said Harrison, who heads the NCAA academic committee overseeing the program. "We presidents bear responsibility. Athletic directors have some responsibility. Academic support personnel and other athletic administrators have responsibility. But the coach has significant responsibility, and so we think this is a way to at least talk about what the performance of coaches is."

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