Caitlin Clark, a star player for the University of Iowa, has catalyzed renewed fandom for women’s college basketball. Her impressive records and honors have garnered attention from both old and new fans. Clark's performance in the Big Ten championship, which was the most-watched women’s college basketball game on CBS since 1999, contributed to the surge in viewership for the sport. Other star players like Angel Reese from Louisiana State University have also gained a huge following in recent years.

While the women's NCAA basketball tournament is capturing the attention of millions of fans, Inside Higher Ed celebrates with the Academic Performance Tournament. This bracket is based on teams' academic success rather than athletic prowess. The tournament measures academic progress rate (APR) as determined by the NCAA. The metric is not without flaws, but it provides insight into the academic success of college basketball teams.

The APR does not account for athletes who leave the program to go pro early. However, it is still a valuable measure of academic progress. In cases where teams have the same APR, the graduation success rate (GSR) and federal graduation rate (FGR) are used as tiebreakers. The GSR measures the proportion of athletes who graduate within six years of entering an institution. The FGR, on the other hand, is a formula used by the federal government to track graduation rates for all students. These metrics help determine the academic success of college basketball teams.

The Academic Performance Tournament encountered an unprecedented situation this year. Creighton University and Drake University, both from Nebraska and Iowa respectively, had the exact same APR, GSR, and FGR metrics. To determine a winner, the overall GSR score across the universities' NCAA teams was used, with Creighton coming out ahead by just 3 percentage points. Additionally, the inclusion of Ivy League universities like Columbia and Princeton posed a challenge since they do not report FGRs due to the absence of athletic scholarships. In these cases, overall GSRs and even a coin flip were used to break the tie.

The winner of the Academic Performance Tournament boasts a perfect APR of 1000, a perfect team GSR of 100, and an overall GSR of 99. This team's outstanding academic performance sets them apart from their competitors. While the lack of FGR data for Ivy League universities may have influenced the outcome of the bracket, the winning team's achievements are undeniable.