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For the past seven years, Inside Higher Ed has conducted its annual Academic Performance Tournament, in which we determine who would prevail in the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball frenzy that is March Madness if academics were the deciding factor.

Today, we present the first-ever women's edition, and unlike yesterday's men's bracket, there are few out-and-out surprises.

In our academic bracket, teams progress through the tournament based on their multiyear Academic Progress Rate, which the NCAA uses to measure classroom performance. If necessary, the NCAA's Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes who graduate within six years, serves as a tie-breaker.

And, also unlike the men's bracket, there are a notable number of high-scoring ties -- in fact, we had to resort to a coin toss to determine our second finalist (sorry, Princeton). But that seems only appropriate, given that chance always plays some small but crucial role in sports.

So, who prevailed? Click here for the full bracket, and good luck filling out your own.
 

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