As the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments head into the Sweet 16, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) examined who would win the competition based on off-the-court criteria.
Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, said the report issued this week, Brackets for Brains and Diversity for the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament, shows what a National Championship would look like in terms of the values that TIDES embraces. These include better hiring practices for women and people of color, good graduation success rates and closing of the gap in graduation rates between white student-athletes and Black student-athletes.
“Place an emphasis on [important subjects] and make it entertaining,” Lapchick said. “These are the teams that would get to the Final Four and ultimately win if it was based on this important set of factors.”
This is the third year that TIDES has released this study. Taking the 64 teams in the first round of the Men’s and Women’s Tournaments, researchers examined Graduation Success Rates (GSR) and Academic Progress Rates (APR) as reported by the NCAA. They then reseeded teams based on an APR and GSR standpoint. The GSR gap between white and Black student-athletes and head coach demographics (race and gender) were also considered.
According to the “TIDES Projections,” the Men’s Final Four would include Michigan, Yale, University of North Carolina and Memphis with Michigan winning the NCAA Championship. The Women’s Final Four would be Kentucky, Notre Dame, University of Buffalo and Georgia with Kentucky winning the title.
“These young ladies are extremely academically focused,” said Passion Richardson, senior academic counselor for Kentucky’s women’s basketball team. “My role is to help them reach that progress towards a degree by helping them map out their schedules and doing that around the demands of the athletic piece.
Passion Richardson
