"Since 2006, Inside Higher Ed has used the NCAA's data on teams' academic performance to select its March Madness winners. First, we compare teams' academic progress rate, the metric the NCAA uses to measure athlete retention and academic eligibility. This year, we used data from 2023-24, the most recent available."
"In the event of a tie, we then look at the teams' graduation success rates, which show how many athletes graduated within six years, and if those numbers are also the same, we turn to the federal graduation rate, a more inclusive measure of a team's completion rate."
March Madness viewership has reached record levels, with creative bracket-making becoming increasingly popular among fans. While many brackets are based on unconventional criteria like mascots, pet choices, or proximity to Waffle Houses, Inside Higher Ed has developed an academic-based approach since 2006. The methodology compares teams using the NCAA's academic progress rate to measure athlete retention and eligibility. Ties are resolved using graduation success rates, which track six-year graduation completion, followed by federal graduation rates. For institutions without federal graduation rate data, such as Ivy League schools, the overall athletic program GSR is used as a tiebreaker.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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