The Gustavus women’s basketball team placed seventh on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) NCAA Division III Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the 2010-11 season with a team GPA of 3.534. Case Western Reserve University won this season’s competition for NCAA Division III with a GPA of 3.609. Centenary College (3.561) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3.560) rounded out the top-three in second and third, respectively.
The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; and junior college/community college teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade point averages (GPAs) inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2010-11 season is the 16th in which the WBCA has presented the standings.
It is the third time in the past 10 seasons that Coaches Haller’s squad has finished in the top 10, placing seventh twice within that time-span in 2002 and 2005. Gustavus joins the University of St. Thomas as the only two representatives from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) to earn a spot in the top 25. The Tommies tied Simpson College for ninth with a team GPA of 3.519.
A team’s GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by the total number of hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.