The NCAA punishes athletics programs at midlevel Division I colleges more harshly for having low academic-progress rates than it does teams in marquee conferences like the Big Ten or the Pacific-10, according to an analysis published today in USA Today.

In its latest round of penalties for low academic performance, released last month, the NCAA sanctioned more than 200 teams at 123 Division I institutions for having low academic-progress rates.

But as USA Today explains, the six wealthiest and highest-profile conferences, which make up nearly 20 percent of the NCAA’s Division I membership (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10, and Southeastern), accounted for less than 10 percent of the scholarship cuts the NCAA doled out as part of the penalties.

Two midlevel programs — San Jose State University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham — lost more scholarships for poor academic performance than all 65 institutions in the power conferences, the report said.

USA Today said one possible explanation for the disparate results is that richer colleges can provide their athletes with more academic support, including summer school, and can afford to use airplanes, not buses, to transport their players to away games, making for less time missed in the classroom. —Libby Sander