First-year football coach Marshall Sperbeck knows he has to play with the cards dealt to him.

He said four or five players didn’t return from last season to play spring ball. He estimated that as many may not return to the team to play this fall.

“Sometimes you inherit players that might not adjust or fit into the new coaching style,” Sperbeck said.

Then, on Wednesday, the NCAA took away two-and-one-half football scholarships and issued a public warning to the football team, the first sanction under the historical penalty structure.

The baseball team also lost one-third of a scholarship for the 2007-08 school year after the two Sacramento State teams scored poorly in the Academic Progress Report.

According to the report, based on the last three academic years, the Hornets football team will lose 2.53 of its 63 scholarships and baseball will lose 0.38 of its 11.7 scholarships for the 2007-08 school year.

If the team fails to show improvement in the APR for another year, football could face sanctions in the areas of scholarships, recruiting and practice. A third year of bad performance by the football team would lead to a loss of postseason competition and a fourth year of bad performance would result in Hornets football not being considered a Division I team.

“It’s a deficit that’s hard to climb out of,” Sperbeck said. “The new staff can’t do a thing about what it inherited. That’s out of our control. Hopefully, you can evaluate year-to-year and see steps of improvement as we go through this next season and in the following two, three years.”

The APR is based on athlete eligibility, retention and graduation. A score of 925 or higher is necessary to avoid penalty, barring exceptions based on team size, called squad-size adjustments, and how the scores compare to the university’s general student body.

Paul Edwards, director of the Student-Athlete Resource Center, said a score of 925 in the APR translates approximately to a 50 percent graduation rate. Teams can lose scholarships if they have a score below 925 and have student-athletes who fail academically and leave the university. Only athletes who receive a full or partial scholarship weigh into the system, meaning walk-on athletes don’t factor in a team APR score.

COMPARISONOther teams in the Big Sky Conference lost scholarships, including Montana State football (3), Northern Arizona football (4.41), Portland State wrestling (0.12) and Weber State football (3.68).

The overall results are better than last year. For the 2006-07 school year, the Hornets lost scholarships in football (2.31), women’s indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country (1.31), men’s basketball (1) and baseball (0.1).

Paul Edwards, director of the Student-Athlete Resource Center, said penalties from 2006-07 would not carry over to the next. Men’s basketball and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country will return to the maximum team limit of 13 and 18 scholarships, respectively.

Men’s basketball coach Jerome Jenkins said his team has improved every year since the APR was implemented. He said its good to have 13 scholarships available again.

“It’s one extra player we can go out and recruit and hopefully make the team better,” Jenkins said.

TEAMS IN TROUBLEAmong men’s teams at Sac State, baseball, basketball, football, golf and indoor and outdoor track and field scored below 925. Among the women’s teams, cross country, tennis and indoor track and field scored below 925. Edwards said teams below 925 must complete academic improvement plans for the NCAA.

Edwards, who is responsible for compiling the APR data for the NCAA, said he totaled the APR for all the intercollegiate teams at Sac State.

The combined APR for the Athletics Department rose from 893 in 2003-04 to 924 in 2004-05 to 927 in 2005-06.

While the NCAA doesn’t total the data for the report in this way, Edwards said, combined data could be a good measurement of the entire program. He attributed some of the improvements to mandatory general education and major advising, the mentoring program for the most at-risk student-athletes and individual team study halls.

Next year, the NCAA will not consider squad-size adjustment before leveling sanctions. According to recent data released in a press release, 44 percent of men’s basketball teams in the NCAA would have posted APRs below 925 and could have lost scholarships without squad-size adjustments.

Some of the smaller, low-scoring teams could be in trouble when the next report is released in spring 2008.

“The jury is out in every single one of them,” Edwards said. “I have individual coaches trying to determine ‘What’s my situation going to be like?’ (It) is impossible because you don’t know what every single student’s eligibility is going to be.”

Jenkins isn’t sure how men’s basketball will score in next year’s report.

“Some guys struggle academically,” Jenkins said. “It’s not that they’re a bad person or anything. I know that the team is making an overall effort, as a team, to make it to class every single day.”

Edwards said teams with low scores should continue to evaluate academic support and coach education.

“I am very encouraged by the strides we’ve made since 03-04 in understanding the process and realizing what we need to do,” Edwards said. “Am I satisfied? Absolutely not. We still have some work to do to improve in that area. We want to improve.”

Nate Miller can be reached at [email protected]