How March Madness teams performed in academics, graduation rates

Editor’s note: Richard Lapchick is a human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, expert on sports issues, scholar and author.

We are now at the peak of the college basketball season and days away from the always enthralling finish to the men’s and women’s Final Fours. With now commonplace upsets leaving six of the eight No. 1 seeds on the men’s and women’s sides at home, brackets are long since smashed. But each year, I choose to reflect on the promises of our colleges and universities to give a meaningful education to the student-athletes representing the schools.

Today, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) released its annual study, “Keeping Score When It Counts: Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate Study of the 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament Teams.” This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the academic performance of student-athletes on teams selected for the 2023 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The study examined the Graduation Success Rates (GSR) and Academic Progress Rates (APR) as reported by the NCAA for the men’s and women’s tournament teams. This study also compared the graduation rate data of white and Black male and female basketball student-athletes.

First of all, the women in the classroom outscore the men by a wide margin. The 2023 report shows that women graduated at an average rate of 93.8%. There were no women’s teams this year that fell below the 930 APR benchmark. White female student-athletes graduated at a rate of 6.3 percentage points higher than Black female student-athletes (97.4% compared to 91.1%).

No institutions had a women’s team with a GSR below 60% in 2023, with 64% being the lowest.

Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said it is not surprising to see such high graduation rates among women student-athletes at colleges and universities across the country.

“Our research consistently shows the power of sport to provide life-changing benefits, including higher academic aspirations, expectations, and achievements,” Leighton said. “These findings underscore the vital need for continued protection and progression of Title IX to expand access and opportunities for all girls and women on the field of play. That expansion helps open a wide pathway to excel and thrive, in both sport and future careers.”

The men graduated at an average rate of 84.9%, decreasing…