The NCAA Division I basketball championships are approaching, and Inside Higher Ed offers an unconventional perspective by predicting outcomes based on academic performance metrics instead of athletic prowess. Utilizing the academic progress rate (APR) from 2022-23, along with graduation success rates and overall federal graduation rates as tiebreakers, the analysis showcases how academic achievement can reflect success in college sports. In a dramatic instance, Clemson University narrowly defeated Liberty University based on these metrics, highlighting the close competition in this unique assessment of college athletics.
If you've been a little too concerned with the news cycle to fill out your bracket, we're here to help. Every year since 2006, Inside Higher Ed has determined which teams would win in the men's and women's tournaments if the results were based on academic, rather than athletic, performance.
To determine the winners, we used the NCAA's key academic performance metric, known as the academic progress rate, for the 2022-23 academic year, the most recent data available.
If two colleges had the same APR, we used 2023-24 graduation success rate, the proportion of athletes who graduated within six years of entering an institution, as tiebreakers.
Still, there were a handful of nail-biting victories. For instance, the Clemson University Tigers tied the Liberty University Flames on both the academic progress and graduate success rates. But when looking at the overall graduation rate, Clemson won by one point.
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