ATLANTA – The Drake University women's basketball program ranked ninth in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the 2016-17 season with a 3.600 team grade point average, the WBCA announced Wednesday, July 19.
This year's award marks the fourth straight season Drake is ranked in the top 10 for the prestigious WBCA team academic honor.
The WBCA Academic Top 25 recognizes NCAA Division I, II and III; NAIA and junior/community college women's basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade point averages inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2016-17 season is the 22nd in which the WBCA has compiled the honor rolls.
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 GPA's are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA member head coach and a team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
Below is the top 10 for the 2016-17 WBCA Academic Top 25 for NCAA Division I:
| Rank |
Institution |
Head Coach |
GPA |
| 1 |
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay |
Kevin Borseth |
3.819 |
| 2 |
Robert Morris University |
Charlie Buscaglia |
3.726 |
| 3 |
University of South Dakota |
Dawn Plitzuweit |
3.704 |
| 4 |
St. Francis College Brooklyn |
John Thurston |
3.689 |
| 5 |
Arizona State University |
Charli Turner Thorne |
3.672 |
| 6 |
Miami University (Ohio) |
Megan Duffy |
3.662 |
| 7 |
Bowling Green State University |
Jennifer Roos |
3.625 |
| 8 |
University of Northern Iowa |
Tanya Warren |
3.609 |
| 9 |
Drake University |
Jennie Baranczyk |
3.600 |
| 10 |
Belmont University |
Cameron Newbauer |
3.575 |
