The NCAA has put the VMI wrestling program on notice for its poor academic performance.

The NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Report on Tuesday, and the VMI wrestling program fell below the mandated score of 925 to avoid penalties.

VMI wrestling had an 888 for the period covering the 2003-04 through the 2006-07 school years. The APR measures academic eligibility and athlete retention. A 900 is roughly equivalent to a 45 percent graduation rate.

VMI wrestling was among 35 teams out of 6,272 Division I squads to receive both an immediate scholarship penalty for their score in this year's APR and a public warning for historically low performance.

The historical penalties, which began last year, are more significant.

This is the first time VMI wrestling has received a historical penalty. If it happens again next year, there could be scholarship losses and reductions in practices and recruiting time. If it falls below 900 a third straight year, it would be banned from the NCAA championships for a year. A fourth straight year on the list could lead to the program losing its Division I status.

"You don't want to be a program that is a candidate for a historical penalty," VMI athletic director Donny White said. "We just had one really, really bad year [out of the four], and another year below 925. But two of the four years were above 925; we had [a perfect score of] 1,000 in Year 3.

"Unfortunately, we had some attrition. I'm not overly worried that we will ultimately be banned from postseason or lose practice time."

The scholarship penalty that VMI received Tuesday doesn't really mean anything.

For 2008-09, VMI will now be limited to 8.9 wrestling scholarships out of the NCAA maximum of 9.9. But VMI only gives out about seven wrestling scholarships a year, so the scholarship penalty actually won't affect the program.

This is the second time VMI wrestling has at least technically been stripped of a grant; it also happened in 2006.

Among other teams in the state to be punished Tuesday was the Liberty men's basketball team, which lost two scholarships for its performance in this year's APR and also received a public warning. The school already stripped itself of one scholarship for the 2007-08 season in anticipation of the penalty, and will also be down a grant next season.

Hampton men's basketball is among the 26 teams nationally that have now scored less than 900 in two consecutive years. Hampton was punished for that with the loss of a scholarship. A third consecutive score below 900 would keep the team out of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

Other teams among the 26 facing possible postseason bans include football teams at San Jose State and Temple, and men's basketball teams at New Mexico State, Fresno State and East Carolina.

"Academic reform is here to stay, and those penalties resemble what we give for major infractions. So these are serious penalties and there are a number of teams that received those," NCAA president Myles Brand said.

"Yes, there are individual institutions who have seen a steady decline [academically] over the last four years, and for them, the situation is dire."

A total of 218 teams nationwide were assessed punishments for their performance in this year's APR and/or their historical performance.

Three schools had more than one team receiving two penalties -- Alabama-Birmingham in men's basketball, football and men's golf; San Diego State in baseball and football; and San Jose State in baseball and men's basketball.

Florida International had five teams receive one sanction each.

Eighteen Bowl Championship Series teams were penalized, eight in men's and women's basketball and two in football.

Among those men's basketball teams were Kansas State, Purdue, Southern California and Tennessee. The two football teams were Kansas and Washington State.

The only ACC team punished was North Carolina State wrestling.

Tennessee and West Virginia, with three teams each on the list, were the only BCS schools with more than one team sanctioned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.