Imagine being told months before the season that you won’t be allowed to play in a bowl game. That tough news was dropped on Akron football last season, that too because they simply didn’t perform well academically. A year later, they’ve caught a much-needed break.

Akron football has received a waiver to play in the postseason in 2026. The program was banned last year after its Academic Progress Rate (APR) plummeted to 914, the worst in the country and well below the CFP’s 930 mandate. The poor academic standing had already resulted in penalties, including restricted practice time the prior year.

Thankfully, an improvement in APR has given Akron hope of a bowl game this time. The waiver also allows them to resume practicing the full 20 hours. The current APR scores are yet to be released publicly, but this development should give a struggling program some spark. The Zips were the first FBS team in more than a decade to be banned from postseason eligibility. The rule was reinstated from the 2024-25 school year onward, after being suspended for some time due to COVID-19. LSU and New Mexico State also had low APRs in 2023, but escaped the ban.

Akron football is a beleaguered program that last saw a good season in 2017. Terry Bowden somehow tied the wins and losses with a 7-7 record, taking the Zips to their last known appearance in a bowl game. Its last winning season was in 2015, when Akron went 8-5. The Zips won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, their only bowl victory in program history.

Current head coach Joe Moorhead has struggled at Akron, but he did improve last year. Sure, the Zips going 5-7 automatically kept them out of the postseason, but they did come close to making 6 wins. If Akron can continue its momentum, Moorhead might take the team to its fifth bowl appearance. The waiver also allows them to contend for a playoff spot, but it is a long shot for the Zips, at least for this season. But a bowl game should be the No. 1 expectation.

Before Akron, it was the Idaho Vandals, in 2014, who were the last FBS team banned from the postseason specifically for APR scores. Their four-year average fell to 903 following a series of low-scoring years, dipping as low as 838 in 2012. But they were not supposed to be the only team that year. UNLV was also initially banned alongside Idaho in 2014. But the Rebels were eventually cleared for postseason play after submitting updated data that raised their score above the required threshold.

In 2011, Southern University became the first school to receive APR-related postseason bans in two sports simultaneously, football and men’s basketball. In 2016, the program also faced a five-year probation and scholarship reductions for failing to comply with academic performance standards.

The NCAA has made its job easy with easy mandates like passing between 6 and 9 credit hours in a semester and 24 over a year to remain eligible on the roster. It is up to the athletes and programs to strike a balance between football and the classroom. Akron, in particular, hasn’t been doing a good job on either front for a while.

APR in Akron has been a problem for some time

Akron has been slipping in APR since 2021. The Zips only barely survived being eligible for the postseason in 2022, somehow posting an APR of 931. But next year, they tumbled to 925. That triggered the NCAA to levy a Level 1 penalty: a reduction in practice hours. Because Akron fell much lower in the 2024-2025 academic year, the postseason ban was in place.

Acknowledging the ban, President RJ Nemer wrote in a staff email that an “action plan” had been put in place and that Athletic Director Andrew Goodrich will “immediately prioritize the academic performance of UA Football.” Nemer claimed that coaching changes and roster adjustments played a factor in the APR score not reaching the NCAA mandate.

With the ban lifted and practice hours restored, the pressure now falls on Joe Moorhead to translate the off-field win into on-field results, as a bowl appearance is no longer just a hope but a tangible goal.