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Cal's Dykes Working To Fix Academic Progress Woes

BERKELEY (CBS Sports) -- There's a mounted flat-screen television in Sonny Dykes' office with Cal-Oregon on pause. He'll get to the game film. But first he's got scholarships to save, academic meetings with higher-ups to conduct, calls to make about the status of former players with plans to graduate.

Cal-Berkeley is the country's top public university according to U.S. News. It also has major Academic Progress Report issues in football because of what athletic director Sandy Barbour describes as "a few missteps" and upperclassmen leaving school with credits on the table.

Dykes vows to improve Cal's score of 936, which ranked 11th in the Pac-12 and 12 points below the national average in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Scoring below a 925 can result in a postseason ban or scholarship reductions.

"We're in a bind here," said Dykes, who in December took over for Jeff Tedford. "It's going to take everyone in this building to get it fixed." That doesn't mean Dykes is afraid to take a chance on a player.

READ MORE from CBS Sports on how Dykes won't give up on a close-call recruit...

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