Abstract

In recent years, the amount of revenue that colleges and universities can earn as a result of having a successful men’s basketball team has increased dramatically. Not surprisingly, the time demands placed upon the student-athletes on these teams have also increased. This has alarmed numerous educators and critics, who worry about the quality of the education that these student-athletes are receiving. Some have argued that teams should be ranked not only by how well they perform on the basketball court, but also by how well they perform in the classroom. This article provides such a ranking for the 343 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams that competed during the 2011–12 through 2014–2015 seasons. The results of this new overall ranking indicated that the two top-ranked teams were Duke and Kentucky. There was a positive correlation between how well a team performed on the basketball court and how well the team’s players performed in the classroom. This was especially true for the most and least successful teams. Implications of these and other results are discussed within the article.