Team tops Virginia, Georgia, Dayton, Duke, others based on academic standards
InsideHigherEd.com—an online trade publication for higher education—released today its own picks for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket based solely on academic standards, and Nashville’s Belmont Bruins won the Championship trophy. On the road to the Championship, Belmont “defeated” some fellow academic powerhouses, including the University of Virginia, University of Georgia, University of Dayton, University of Louisville, Duke University and, in the title game, the University of Kansas.
The Inside Higher Ed website annually completes an NCAA bracket based on each team’s academic performance, with teams in the bracket “competing” based on Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, the N.C.A.A.’s multiyear measure of a team’s classroom performance. If teams tie on APR, Inside Higher Ed then moves to Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes on track to graduate within six years. Belmont’s men’s basketball currently boasts a perfect 1000-point APR as well as a 100 percent graduation rate. Belmont, the only team in Tennessee to be invited to the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also won the Inside Higher Ed Academic Bracket in 2013.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “I’ve said many times before that as much as I enjoy the spirit of competition in all of our athletic programs, nothing makes me happier than to see our student-athletes ‘win’ off the court, performing well in the classroom, serving in the community and landing careers that fulfill their personal dreams. To win the Inside Higher Ed academic bracket for the second time in three years proves our Athletics department is focusing on all the right priorities, and I couldn’t be more proud of our men’s basketball team.”
Men’s basketball Head Coach Rick Byrd added, ““On behalf of our players and coaches, I would like to thank Inside Higher Ed for recognizing the Belmont Basketball program in this way. We take pride in the academic accomplishments of our program – past and present – and full credit goes to our players. It is neat how Inside Higher Ed puts this twist on the NCAA Tournament bracket each year.
Belmont’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Rick Byrd was recognized at today’s Hoop Hour Luncheon with the presentation of a Resolution from Nashville’s Metropolitan Council in honor of his 700th win. Byrd is in his 29th season at Belmont and in January, he received his 700th career victory when the Belmont’s Men’s basketball team beat Austin Peay 89-83.
Dr. Mike Butera, a Belmont alumnus and adjunct instructor of sociology, invented 
Belmont University was recently honored with the 2014 Tree Campus USA® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management.
In honor of Arbor Day and Belmont’s recent designation as a 2014 Tree Campus, the University hosted a tree planting celebration on Friday, March 6. Belmont’s Tree Advisory Committee and the student led Environment and Conservation Organization (ECO) Club was present to celebrate with the University and planted a Colorado Blue Spruce. In addition to the Blue Spruce, five other trees were planted on-campus. ECO provides interaction with students across campus who are interested in environmental issues and sponsors students activities including river clean-ups, exotic plant removals, Earth Day awareness events, nature hikes and environmental guest speaker series.
