Indiana State among 17 institutions awarded NCAA Accelerating Academic Success Program grants

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Indiana State was among 17 grant recipients for NCAA member schools receiving Accelerating Academic Success Program grants totaling more than $1.6 million to support student-athlete academic achievement for the 2026-27 academic year, according to an announcement Thursday.

The NCAA AASP grant program was created in 2012 to provide targeted resources to historically under-resourced Division I schools. The grants are used by schools to strengthen academic support, help improve Academic Progress Rates and build programs that help student athletes thrive en route to graduation.

To be considered a historically under-resourced Division I school, the school must prove its lack of resources compared to the rest of Division I through research metrics analyzed by the NCAA. According to the NCAA, that institution must sit in the bottom 15% of all Division I members based on per-capita institutional expenditures, per-capita athletics funding and per-capita Pell Grant student aid. Additionally, the school must be a member of an athletic conference where at least 60% of the member schools fall into that same bottom 15% bracket.

Other necessary categories the school must fall into include having two or fewer teams scoring below a 930 APR and three teams scoring below 930 APR, provided the university has not triggered severe Level II or Level III NCAA penalties within the past two APR reporting cycles.

Kara Harris, Indiana State’s faculty athletics representative, said that the grant funds Next Level Sycamores, a professional development program designed in collaboration with ISU’s student athletes, academic affairs, athletics, the career center and the counseling center.

She said it provides career preparation, mental-health tools and technology that support ISU students through their years competing as Sycamores and into the careers they build afterward.

“Next Level Sycamores advances our students and supports the university’s strategic plan, Take Root and Rise,” Harris said.

“I’m grateful to the NCAA for the investment and most proud of the students and campus partners who helped shape it.”

ISU was one of 31 institutions to apply for a grant. Since 2023, the NCAA has seen grant applications triple.

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