Time: Here's Who Wins March Madness in the Classroom

[AustinDevil]

So this article is fun, trying to take the brackets and pick winners based on academics.

http://time.com/3745396/march-madness-classroom/

It is obviously silly, and has Davidson > Duke, so don't take it too seriously. But it also includes the best thing I have read on the Interwebs today:

"One important note: Harvard, the Ivy League champion, was excluded from the rankings because the Ivy League does not report federal graduation rates for athletes. So the University of North Carolina, Harvard’s first round opponent, moves on."

[Bluedog]

So this article is fun, trying to take the brackets and pick winners based on academics.

http://time.com/3745396/march-madness-classroom/

It is obviously silly, and has Davidson > Duke, so don't take it too seriously. But it also includes the best thing I have read on the Interwebs today:

"One important note: Harvard, the Ivy League champion, was excluded from the rankings because the Ivy League does not report federal graduation rates for athletes. So the University of North Carolina, Harvard’s first round opponent, moves on."

I don't follow the method..


The base measure is a school’s most recent men’s basketball “Graduation Success Rate,” a figure measured by the NCAA that doesn’t dock schools for having players who transfer or go pro before graduating–as long as those players leave in good academic standing. The higher the school’s graduation success rate, the higher they start out in New America’s rankings.

Great, both Davidson and Duke are 100 so start out the same.


New America, however, did subtract points from schools that graduate men’s basketball players at a much different rate than the overall men’s graduation rate at the school. To compare students to athletes, New America used federal graduation rates, which take a cohort of students from 2004-2007, and measured if they graduated within six years. Even if a school graduated basketball players at higher rates than the overall male student population, the difference was counted as a penalty against schools that have low overall male graduation rates.

Duke overall male graduation rate: 93%. Davidson: 90%. So, Duke's difference between overall male graduation and bball graduation is smaller and thus should be penalized less, giving them an overall higher ranking, right? But Duke is ranked overall #14. If it was the inverse (maybe they see bball players exceeding the overall male population as a positive), than Maryland at 100% bball, 79% overall male, would be ranked higher than Davidson. I'm not following it.

[AustinDevil]

Yeah I don't get Davidson > Duke either, even based on their stated methodology. I posted, of course, for an entirely different reason: the hilarity of Harvard being ruled ineligible, thereby advancing the CHEaters.

[BlueTeuf]

They used a "Basketball Graduation Fed Rate" of 67 for Duke compared to an 85 for Davidson. Duke's delta was 26 vice a delta of 5 for Davidson. At cursory glance, the 67 for Duke represents a circa 2007 number - but am not quite sure about that, or even what it implies. 6 years to graduate after 2007 could make that a very contemporary number.

[Bluedog]

They used a "Basketball Graduation Fed Rate" of 67 for Duke compared to an 85 for Davidson. Duke's delta was 26 vice a delta of 5 for Davidson. At cursory glance, the 67 for Duke represents a circa 2007 number - but am not quite sure about that, or even what it implies. 6 years to graduate after 2007 could make that a very contemporary number.

They said they used "Graduation Success Rate," which is listed as 100 for Duke in the table and if you hover over the icon on the bracket. Where did the 67 come from? I guess I'm missing it -- I don't see a "Basketball Graduation Fed Rate" when I search for it. In any event, still doing pretty well and obviously nitpicking it, but the article is not clear, in my opinion. A 67% rate for Duke bball (when taking transfers and guys going pro) into account seems about right.

[BlueTeuf]

Sorry - should have included a link. There's a link to a spreadsheet at the bottom on the following page:

http://www.edcentral.org/march-madness-2015/

[BlueTeuf]

Here's a link to a search query for the NCAA database on grad rates:

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/division-i-graduation-success-rates-search

[Billy Dat]

Yeah I don't get Davidson > Duke either, even based on their stated methodology. I posted, of course, for an entirely different reason: the hilarity of Harvard being ruled ineligible, thereby advancing the CHEaters.

At the end of K's press conference yesterday, maybe the final 3-4 minutes, someone asks him about Tommy Amaker and he goes from being in a generally good mood to, essentially, acting like someone acts when asks to talk about their grandchildren (because, let's face it, children often drive us crazy, no matter the love).

http://www.goduke.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=3820895&db_oem_id=4200

Around the 23 minute mark, after talking a little about Tommy's coaching career progression, he talks about Tommy at Harvard. And while he doesn't articulate the point the way he might of had he known he was going to get into that area, he basically says that Tommy has pushed Harvard to not only let him take a few kids who might not have traditionally qualified for the school, but that he has pushed Harvard to look at, basically, non-white admissions more critically and that, as a result, he is having "a profound impact on society" because of what these young men will hopfully become armed with Harvard degrees. In that sense, he says, "Tommy has always understood things far better then the rest of us".

[UrinalCake]

Maryland in the final game?!? This is a program that posted a ZERO percent graduation rate a few years ago. Harvard over UNC in the first round? If that isn't the most backward result that could possibly be conceived, then I don't know what is.

[77devil]

They said they used "Graduation Success Rate," which is listed as 100 for Duke in the table and if you hover over the icon on the bracket. Where did the 67 come from? I guess I'm missing it -- I don't see a "Basketball Graduation Fed Rate" when I search for it. In any event, still doing pretty well and obviously nitpicking it, but the article is not clear, in my opinion. A 67% rate for Duke bball (when taking transfers and guys going pro) into account seems about right.

GSR is an NCAA measure that doesn't count transfers and early departures to the pros in good academic standing. The federal graduation rate does. The formula the article uses is stupid and misleading.

[oakvillebluedevil]

...it all feels like an elaborate Duke troll...*puts on tinfoil hat and scrutinizes potential evidence of Duke diets being bad before loss to ND* :D