There was a period of about 5 years when UConn had a lot of early departures for the NBA along with some program dropouts/transfers who failed to maintain good academic standing before leaving. This was before there was any APR. Of course, if you are going to the NBA, you have to train and perform in tryouts in prior to the draft, so there is no way to finish classes.
Other schools that play athletics at a high level required athletes to take summer classes and intersession classes, so that they had completed a year's credits before spring semester started, and early departures after basketball season ended but before spring semester ended did not hurt their statistics. UConn, on the other hand, having recently joined the club (joined Big East in basketball in 1979, but first championship in 1999, and didn't start having athletes leave early for NBA in any numbers until the 2000s; joined DI-A football in 2003), still kept to a traditional academic calendar: fall and spring semesters. So when athletes lost interest in classes in April of their final year, it dinged the statistics.
This didn't matter until the NCAA decided to make graduation and "academic progress" rates their propaganda cover for illiterate/innumerate athletes. They introduced a sham measure of progress knowing that schools could fake their way around it with sham classes. UConn didn't realize how the game was played until too late and it had already been dinged. It didn't help UConn that the APR was imposed retroactively. So for maintaining a traditional academic calender (fall-spring classes only) and traditional grading standards (don't do the work, you fail), UConn got punished.
Now UConn has the athletes take summer and intersession classes and our APR is perfect every year.
