By Jim Halley, USA TODAY

Torrel Harris has a son, Tobias, and a daughter, Tesia, playing college basketball. His youngest son, Tyler, a senior at St. Benedict's Prep (Newark), is one of the top recruits. Torrel said he has always stressed the importance of a college education, but that doesn't mean a coach's academic ratings matter much to him.

"With Tobias, we looked at the majors he wanted to be in (sports management and communications) and looked at the curriculums," Torrel said of his son who is a freshman at Tennessee. "Ultimately, he's going to college to get a degree, and it's his job to graduate, not Coach (Bruce) Pearl's. With Tesia, I didn't look at the graduation rate at Delaware (she has since transferred to St. John's), but we looked at the strong academic component the school has."

Starting at 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday, the NCAA will attach team Academic Progress Rates (APRs) that have been compiled since 2003-04 to the coaches of those teams in Division I football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, and women's indoor and outdoor track in an online database at ncaa.org. The data will expand to include coaches in other Division I sports next year.

Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs, said he hopes the APR will be used as a recruiting tool by coaches who do a good job of graduating players.

"They can point to the fact that wherever they have been in their career, historically, they've been able to graduate their student-athletes," he said.

Tobias Harris, a 2010 USA TODAY All-USA forward, said most top basketball recruits are unlikely to be concerned about a coach's APR history.

"They look at whether the coach can help them become a better player," he said. "Getting an education is on you and what your goals are."

APR might have more pull in sports where players generally stay in school for four years.

Wayne Lyons of Dillard (Fort Lauderdale), the No. 4 safety on Rivals.com, has a 4.9 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, thanks to honors classes, and is looking to major in engineering or business.

"That's a big concern for everybody," Lyons said. "Is the coach going to push everybody to make sure they graduate? It (the APR) could also show how tough it might be at a school to manage football and classes."

Said Billy Brown, father of 2008 All-USA basketball player Jasmine Dixon (now at UCLA): "That's one of the major things they look at. Jasmine was always an honor student. My main thing was will she continue to get assistance as far as tutoring and do tutors travel with the team?"

"I think that breaking the system down by coaches is a really good idea," said Maddie Meyers, who will be a junior distance runner this fall at Northwest School (Seattle). "When I seriously start narrowing down school choices I think it will give me a better idea of the coaches. You will be able to look at the academic progress of the students they coach and compare them with other programs. To me finding a college with overall good academics is a little more important than just the team's academics, but it would definitely make a difference."

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