Baylor makes Final Four in TIME’s Academic March Madness

As top seeds, the Baylor men’s and women’s basketball teams have a great shot at making deep runs in this year’s NCAA tournament. But if the tournament was based on academics, rather than athletics, how would Baylor fare?

TIME magazine ran just such an exercise, taking the 68-team field but determining who “wins” each round based on graduation success rate and other academic statistics. As one might expect, the Bears fare well — Baylor reaches the Final Four of this “Classroom March Madness.”

In fact, out of the entire bracket, Baylor is the No. 6 overall academic seed, behind only Davidson, Maryland, Notre Dame, Butler and Gonzaga, and ahead of schools like Duke, Oklahoma, Texas and UCLA.

And this isn’t the first such recognition for Baylor; similar exercises in 2010 and 2012 also honored Baylor’s academic/athletic combination.

Sic ’em, Baylor basketball!