If the NCAA wants to drive home the perils of not being in step with its academic performance initiative, the Academic Progress Rate, it need only point to two University of Hawai'i football opponents this month.

Both Idaho, last week's foe, and Washington State, Saturday's opponent at Aloha Stadium, have been poster teams for the impact APR sanctions can have and, as such, should provide vivid inspiration as the Warriors get their own house in order.

Idaho and WSU are a combined 4-20 overall this year, the Vandals (2-10, 1-7 conference) are the bottom team in the Western Athletic Conference standings while the Cougars (2-10, 1-8) are one step out of the Pac-10 cellar. Each has only one victory against a Bowl Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) opponent this year.

Both, thanks to shortcomings in previous head coaching regimes, have suffered the loss of eight football scholarships, second only to Akron's nine for the most severe sanctions meted out to any of the 119 schools that play major college football.

To be sure Idaho and WSU have other significant hurdles, including being at the bottom of their conferences in financial support. But those handicaps have been exacerbated by the inability to field squads as large or as experienced as their opponents.

"Losing eight scholarships, plus the loss of two initial (scholarships), certainly impacted our program," said Idaho athletic director Rob Spear.

While the NCAA permits a maximum of 85 scholarships at one time and 25 initials in one recruiting class, Idaho was making due with 77. WSU had 79, according to its compliance director, Steve Robertello. Neither had a full 25-man freshman class the past two years. (UH used 84 scholarships this year, according to a spokesman).

Factor in attrition and players dismissed for violating school policies and their benches have not only been thinner but less seasoned. "Consequently, we have played the past two football seasons with a very young and inexperienced team," Spear noted.

Definitely not the way you want to line up against a Boise State or Southern California.

Even as Idaho and WSU turn the corner, that should be a sobering reminder for UH, which has lost a scholarship each of the past two years for also coming up short on the APR, which measures academic eligibility of players, projects graduation rates and sets minimum benchmarks.

In his nine months since taking over as UH head coach, Greg McMackin has made it a priority, both in deed and word, to improve APR rates and graduation, advances, UH officials say, that will be reflected in the next round of APR scores.

In the meantime, UH need only look at these two recent opponents to grasp the urgency of the task at hand and risks of not measuring up.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.