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The UA football program's argument that poor academic performance is rooted in its numerous coaching changes did not sway NCAA officials, who Thursday denied an appeal and penalized the team four scholarships.

The UA became the first BCS conference team to be penalized and will feel the impact this fall, said Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose, senior associate athletic director.

The athletic department had argued that the program's instability over the last five years — the Wildcats are on their fourth head coach since 2000 — fostered some of the academic troubles.

"Obviously we're disappointed. We thought we had a good case for how the coaching changes affected some student-athletes," LaRose said. "At the same time, this is a learning curve and we know we have to get better."

The scholarship penalties are the centerpiece of the NCAA's academic reform agenda and hit about 100 Division I sports teams at 65 universities. The NCAA implemented the Academic Progress Rate on an experimental basis last year, and began penalizing schools with scholarship losses this year. Underperforming teams are not able to replace academically ineligible players who leave school, essentially forfeiting those scholarships for one year.

The NCAA requires an APR rating of 925 or higher — equating roughly to a graduation rate of 50 percent. But the UA football team fell below that threshold at 882.  

Starting this year, teams can be penalized, and those that continue to post subpar scores could receive more severe punishments, such as the loss of postseason eligibility.

UA football coach Mike Stoops was frustrated by the decision, but said the penalty "makes us very conscious about what we do."

"I thought we had some tough circumstances, but it is what it is," said Stoops. "We'll take the consequences and concentrate on trying to improve."

Stoops said he has tried to recruit better student-athletes since taking over after the 2003 season, and his top priority is getting players to graduate, regardless of their on-field success.

"We're going to try to improve academically and athletically," he added. "We do everything we can. I'm sure we can do some things better, but we're already significantly better than we were."

Stoops said he is still learning the ins and outs of the system, but added it is odd the UA is the only Bowl Championship Series team penalized so far. Appeals are pending at four other BCS schools, including Arizona State.

"That irritates me," Stoops said. "We'll take our penalty now. If we show significant improvement, hopefully they'll forget about it." 

The UA is one of 24 football teams penalized overall, with 10 squads cut by the maximum nine scholarships.

Under NCAA rules, 10 percent of the lost scholarships must come from incoming classes, and all scholarship penalties be taken at the first opportunity. Scholarships that have been offered do not have to be rescinded, though.

Because the UA has 24 players in the incoming class of a maximum 25, the first scholarship loss will be taken there.

Also, the team does not plan to fill the maximum 85 roster slots, so the second scholarship loss will be taken there.

The other two will be taken from signed incoming players who don't enroll or out of next year's incoming class.

The football team is the second UA squad to be penalized under the NCAA's sanctions.

The baseball team had an APR of 865 and was penalized by 1.7 scholarships — the maximum 10 percent of its 11.7 scholarships — when the initial results were announced March 1.

"Hopefully, we'll be fine next year. We're predicting we'll be fine," LaRose said.