Â鶹¹û¶³ placed second in Inside Higher Ed’s . Using the official tournament bracket, teams were compared based on their most recent academic progress rate (APR), which measures athlete retention and academic eligibility. With graduation success rate (GSR) as the tiebreaker, Â鶹¹û¶³ progressed to the final, only losing out to the Ivy League’s Princeton University by one point.
Both Â鶹¹û¶³ and Princeton have a perfect APR score (1000) for women’s basketball, and the schools have graduation success rates of 97 and 98, respectively.
Â鶹¹û¶³’s GSR score is the joint-third highest in the nation. , and Â鶹¹û¶³ has the highest score among Alabama schools and the highest in the Southern Conference. Â鶹¹û¶³ has led the SoCon in the GSR report for eight straight years and has led the state for the last 15 years.
Â鶹¹û¶³ women’s sports teams are also the , awarded to the top overall women’s athletics program in the SoCon—an honor that recognizes athletic and academic success. The Bulldogs have won that honor for five consecutive years.
After qualifying for the NCAA tournament by winning the SoCon tournament, Â鶹¹û¶³ faced Southern University in a 16-seed play-in game. Although the Bulldogs lost on the court, in the academic bracket, they bested Southern, South Carolina, Clemson, Colorado State, Washington and Iowa State on their way to the final. This recognition from Inside Higher Ed highlights Â鶹¹û¶³’s place at the forefront of academic excellence, educating student-athletes to succeed in their sport, in the classroom and in their career.