Do Academic and Athletic Success Correlate?

Trinity sports teams have been doing quite well last semester, which led to suggestions that we are a bunch of jocks with more muscle than brain. While some colleges clearly defy the assumption that academically successful colleges produce sub-par athletes and vice versa (Williams and the University of Michigan come to mind), other schools, who shall remain unnamed, might provide evidence that there is some truth to that suggestion.

In this exercise I want you to collect data on

• the athletic standing of all NESCAC schools
• the academic standing of these schools

and test whether good schools have lousy sports teams or whether there is little correlation between academic and athletic success. Your report should contain a careful graph of athletic success vs. academic standing and your interpretation of the data.  One well-reasoned, typed page is plenty! No novels, please.