But there is one thing the Ivy League does that truly sets it apart from its sporting brethren nationwide: it tracks and scrutinizes the finite, detailed academic credentials of every recruited athlete welcomed through the doors of the eight member ins utions. And it has done so for more than 25 years — creating a dossier of grades and test scores for more than 40,000 student-athletes.
To accomplish this, the league came up with a measurement called the Academic Index, which gives all prospective high school recruits a number, roughly from 170 to 240, that summarizes their high school grade-point averages and scores on standardized tests like the SAT. The index number of every admitted recruit is shared among the member ins utions to guarantee that no vastly underqualified recruit has been admitted at a rival ins ution and to allow member universities to compare classwide index averages for athletes against similar averages for the overall student body.