The Challenge
At Loyola Marymount University, NCAA certification is a critical but time-intensive responsibility.
Twice each year, the Office of the Registrar must certify student athletes for NCAA competition, which entails completing Progress Toward Degree calculations for many student athletes. Each certification requires reviewing degree audits, evaluating completed, transfer, and in-progress coursework, and applying NCAA percentage thresholds at key academic milestones. The work is detailed, compliance-driven, and deadline-sensitive.
For years, the process was entirely manual. A single PTD calculation could take 30–60 minutes per athlete, depending on the complexity of their academic record. With dozens of athletes per sport and multiple teams to review, the time commitment quickly compounded into hours of concentrated work within tight certification windows.
Although deadlines were consistently met, they were often met under pressure. Certification only happens twice a year, making it difficult to continuously refine the workflow. Knowledge was concentrated among a small number of staff, and the work had to be balanced alongside other registrar priorities. Athletics relied on timely approvals to clear students for competition, leaving little margin for delay.
LMU recognized that continuing to manage NCAA certification manually was no longer sustainable. They needed a more scalable, data-driven approach that could reduce strain, improve turnaround time, and strengthen collaboration across departments.
“We’ve always gotten it done, but it’s always been a challenge to complete the calculations in a timely manner.”
The Solution
Rather than searching for a standalone compliance product, LMU turned to a platform they already trusted: Argos.
The university partnered with Evisions Professional Services to build a reporting solution tailored specifically to NCAA PTD certification. The goal was not to eliminate human review, but to create a reliable, structured foundation that would significantly accelerate calculations and reduce repetitive manual effort.
The implementation began with deep discovery. NCAA regulations are nuanced, and even small oversights in calculation logic could affect outcomes. Over several months, the team worked collaboratively to define business rules, validate edge cases, and refine report outputs. Functional expertise in certification requirements was paired with institutional data knowledge and Professional Services development to ensure accuracy and alignment.
The final solution included Argos reports that provide a strong starting point for PTD calculations, along with scheduled jobs that refresh data daily. Instead of rebuilding calculations from scratch each cycle, staff now work from pre-validated reports that significantly narrow the manual review effort. What was once a fully manual process became a streamlined, hybrid workflow driven by automation and oversight.
“Partnering with Evisions on this project made it a thousand times easier for us. We knew we were going to get quality work.”
“The knowledge from Evisions Professional Services was obvious because they would always ask the right questions. That made the process smoother and easier for us.”
The Results
Argos transformed NCAA certification from a recurring bottleneck into a streamlined, proactive process.
Time required per PTD calculation dropped from approximately 30–60 minutes to closer to 10–25 minutes, representing an estimated 50–65% reduction in manual effort. Across dozens of athletes per certification cycle, these time savings compounded quickly.
The last two rounds of certifications were completed earlier than ever before, allowing the Registrar’s Office to move from operating near compliance deadlines to delivering approvals with significant lead time.
Earlier turnaround strengthened collaboration with Athletics. Instead of responding under urgency, the Registrar’s Office now delivers certifications proactively, reducing stress and improving coordination across departments.
The improvements also created operational resilience. Increased efficiency allowed the team to absorb staffing changes without compromising deliverables, maintaining service levels while reallocating resources to other institutional priorities.
With scheduled Argos jobs refreshing reports daily, staff now have immediate access to current data without rebuilding queries or reconstructing calculations each cycle. What was once manual and repetitive is now structured, reliable, and scalable.
“These last two rounds of certifications have been the fastest ever.”
The Future
While the current reporting framework supports student athletes with LMU-only coursework, leadership sees this initiative as a foundation for continued process refinement. As transfer credit documentation evolves, there is opportunity to expand automation further and support an even broader population of students.
More broadly, the project demonstrated how Argos and Evisions Professional Services can address highly specialized, compliance-driven workflows. By combining institutional expertise with a trusted technology partner, LMU modernized a decades-old process and strengthened its culture of proactive, data-driven operations.
The result is not just faster certification. It is improved collaboration, reduced compliance pressure, and a sustainable model for managing complex academic reporting in a modern higher education environment.