Post Academic

Since we’re gearing up to watch the Elite Eight games to see who makes it to the Final Four, I wanted to revisit how our geek’s March Madness picks panned out.  Obviously enough, our choices aren’t going to help anyone win their pool–Kansas, BYU, Wake Forest, and Duke (the lone remaining contender)–though this group didn’t fare any worse than my actual picks.  And I still can’t figure out how Kansas let us down!

To make our picks, we used numbers from this poll conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which accounted for graduation rates (GSR) and something called “Academic Progress Rate” (APR), along with a more subjective sense of academic reputation.  For all the details on our how we came up with our semi-academic measure for making our picks, go here; to see bracket-by-bracket analysis, go here and here, too.)

Here are how the Elite Eight fare, according to our academic power poll (listed alphabetically).  Note that the graduation rates among the eight teams is not stellar, though some of the programs are probably impacted by early entry by underclassmen in the NBA draft.  Also, an Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 925 or lower could put a program at risk of losing scholarships:

Baylor: 989 (out of 1000) APR / 36% GSR

Butler: 964 APR / 90% GSR

Duke: 989  APR / 92% GSR

Kansas State: 900 APR / 62% GSR

Kentucky: 979 APR / 31% GSR

Michigan State: 985 APR / 58% GSR

Tennessee: 924 APR / 30% GSR

West Virginia: 960 APR / 44% GSR

Have a good weekend watching the games!

“U.S. President Barack Obama picks his winners for the 2009 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament” by Pete Souza from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, public domain