Jayhawks Reach Title Game of Inside Higher Ed’s “NCAA Academic Tournament”

LAWRENCE, Kansas – The Kansas men’s basketball team reached the championship game of Inside Higher Ed’s 2015 “NCAA Academic Tournament” before bowing to Belmont in “double overtime.”
 
Inside Higher Ed annually uses the NCAA’s most recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) to determine the winner of each matchup from the real NCAA tournament bracket.  The APR rewards teams whose players stay in good academic standing and remain enrolled from semester to semester.  Inside Higher Ed broke ties by using the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate (GSR), a variation of the graduation rate that considers transfers and does not punish teams whose athletes leave college before graduation if they leave in good academic standing.  If a further tiebreaker is needed, the publication uses the Federal Graduation Rate, which deducts points when student-athletes, for any reason, do not graduate from the school at which he originally enrolled.
 
The Jayhawks defeated New Mexico State. Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and Arizona en route to the championship game. Kansas and Belmont had identical APRs and GSR, but Belmont’s federal rate was better.
 
KU won this competition in 2014, 2012 and 2010, reached the championship game in 2013, and reached the “Final Four” in 2011. Click here for the full Inside Higher Ed story.

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