The University of South Carolina clinched its first NCAA national title in women’s basketball last night, defeating Mississippi State in convincing fashion. Tonight, the men will take to the court to determine their own champion, as Gonzaga squares off against the University of North Carolina. However, two entirely different teams, the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University, claimed victories in NASBA’s third annual Uniform CPA Exam Brackets.

While basketball fans around the country support their favorite teams on the court, NASBA has examined how students from schools participating in the NCAA Division I tournaments perform on the Uniform CPA Examination. Starting with the same 64 tournament teams and first-round schedule, NASBA brackets differ by schools advancing solely on their first-time CPA Exam pass rate for the 2016 calendar year.

Consistent with the 2016 winners, Wisconsin and the University of Pennsylvania, the two teams claiming the title, this year, consisted of one large, esteemed accounting program and one smaller school of strong academic prestige. On the women’s side, the powerhouse accounting program from Notre Dame secured the win with a pass rate of 82.9%, narrowly beating out the Tennessee Vols. The Fighting Irish have over 200 candidates sitting for the CPA Exam, each year, and consistently record a top pass-rate.

The men’s CPA Exam bracket was captured by a significantly smaller group of candidates from Northwestern University. With a first-time pass rate of 88.9%, the Wildcats beat out the men’s bracket runner-up, Vermont, by over 10%.

School rankings and first-time pass rates are pulled from NASBA’s 2016 Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination: University Edition, which is available for purchase at nasbareport.com. Schools must have had a minimum of five candidates sit for the CPA Exam in the 2016 calendar year to be included in the Uniform CPA Exam Bracket. NASBA began gathering data on CPA Examination candidates in 1982, and has published reports on performance and selected characteristics since 1985.

NASBA congratulates all participating Division I institutions on their academic and athletic achievements.

Men’s Bracket (Click bracket to expand)

Women’s Bracket (Click bracket to expand)