LAS VEGAS -- Before he agreed to take over Texas A&M's basketball program a year ago, Billy Kennedy did the proper research.

Or so he thought.

Kennedy studied the returning roster, asked questions about the program's budget and made sure he felt comfortable with the administrators he'd deal with on a daily basis. Looking back, though, Kennedy said he wishes he had done one thing differently.

"There's no question," Kennedy said, "that I should've asked about the APR. I just assumed the situation was fine, and it wasn't. Fortunately, we got things back in great shape, but you still need to know from the beginning what you're getting into."

Especially these days.

In June, it was announced that a record 10 men's basketball teams will be ineligible for the 2013 postseason because of a poor showing on the Academic Progress Rate, which measures the classroom performance of every Division I team.

The headliner of the group: Connecticut. Two years after winning the NCAA title, the Huskies and Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun won't be allowed to compete in the NCAA tournament this spring. Or the NIT, for that matter.

"The NCAA wanted a school like UConn, a big BCS school," said one college coach who asked to remain anonymous. "It made news, it created a buzz. It sent a message."

Consider it received.

Perhaps now more than ever, coaches are closely monitoring their athletes' academic progress in hopes of avoiding a similar fate. The perception that the NCAA protects its banner programs and looks the other way when issues arise is gone. If it can happen at Connecticut, they said, it can happen anywhere.

"A lot of times we make rules but, when they don't work, we change them," Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. "This time, they backed it up with UConn. They tried to get a waiver and it got denied.

"The NCAA stayed strong. They didn't just talk the talk. They backed it up."

Implemented in 2004, the APR tracks how individual players perform in the classroom each semester and then calculates their marks into an overall team grade. Squads who fall short of the APR threshold of 925, which is equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate, are subject to penalties ranging from postseason bans to restrictions on scholarships and practice time.

Most coaches praise former NCAA president Myles Brand for coming up with the idea nearly a decade ago. All the way up until his death in 2009, Brand was a champion for academic reform in college athletics.

Still, while Brand's APR may have been well-intended, coaches say it's hardly without flaws.

The main complaint is that the APR's guidelines are too rigid, too cut-and-dry. They say it penalizes schools for situations that are often out of a coach's control.

"It can't be a 'this is it' or 'this is the only way,'" Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson said. "In some situations, adjustments need to be made. Some part of it has to be chameleon to what's happening in our society, in our game."

Coaches often inherit APR issues during their first year at a new school. The previous coach may not have stressed academics or done a good job of monitoring his players' grades. It's also natural for athletes to seek transfers when there is a coaching change. And transfers can be a big problem.

“ It can't be a 'this is it' or 'this is the only way.' In some situations, adjustments need to be made. Some part of it has to be chameleon to what's happening in our society, in our game.

” -- SIU coach Barry Hinson

Schools aren't penalized for athletes who are in "good academic standing" when they switch schools. That means they have a grade point average of 2.6 or better. But a program will take a hit when a player leaves with a sub-2.6 GPA.

Southern Illinois athletic director Mario Moccia initially caught some heat when he declined to grant a release to a player who wanted to transfer after Hinson was hired in March.

Freshman forward Treg Setty had a 2.5 GPA when he requested his release last spring, but Moccia wouldn't release him until he raised it to 2.6. Setty threw a fit and claimed he was being treated unfairly. By the end of the semester, though, he had raised his GPA. SIU granted him a release and he transferred to Ohio University.

"They can transfer with a 2.0 and be eligible at their new school," Hinson said. "But if they leave with anything below a 2.6, we're penalized. That doesn't seem right."

Players leaving school early for the NBA draft can also cause problems. Syracuse was docked two scholarships when Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris left campus before the end of the spring semester in 2009 to train without fulfilling their academic requirements.

"The APR is a work in progress," Kennedy said. "There needs to be some adjustments made when it comes to coaching changes and transition. There needs to be an appeals process that's fair. There are so many variables involved in the whole process, with kids leaving for the NBA, transferring or whatever else.

"Those are things that a program doesn't have control over. You shouldn't be penalized for that."

Another trend is for players to earn their undergraduate degree before exhausting their eligibility. When that happens, an athlete can transfer to another school for his final season without having to sit out a year.

"Then their new school gets credit APR-wise for their fourth year and the old school gets nothing," New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. "Kids have the mentality that they can press the 'reset' button and everything will be OK, but they don't realize who it's affecting.

"I'm all in favor of the academic side of it. But some tweaking needs to be done. Issues come up that you can't really prepare for."

It's not as if coaches weren't warned, though.

Hinson remembers sitting next to former Arkansas State coach Dickey Nutt during a Division I coaches meeting in 2004 when Brand discussed the APR.

"It was like [Brand] was making a big proclamation," Hinson said. "He told us over and over again, 'Guys, this is not going away. We're serious.'

"I remember turning to Dickey and saying, 'The college basketball landscape is about to change.'"

Hinson has long been a proponent of academic reform and takes pride in his players' success in the classroom. Hinson said 46 of the 49 players who exhausted their eligibility at Oral Roberts and Missouri State went on to receive their diplomas. That's why he said he doesn't feel as if he's "talking out of both sides of my mouth" when he criticizes the APR.

"I feel like I can stick my chest out a little bit and argue for coaches' rights," he said.

Hinson said the thing that bothers him about the APR the most is that it can...