This study utilized the Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT) concept, an educational technique employing team competition within the classroom. The hypothesis was that mediating TGT's effects on academic performance is a change in the relationship between academic performance and sociometric status of students. Subjects were 232 seventh grade students incorporated into a 2x2 design varying both competition (team vs. individual) and practice (individual vs. group) modes. Team competition changed the peer group norms as predicted, creating a positive relationship between academic performance and sociometric status, whereas no such relationship existed for students in the individual competition. Implications for the sociology of education are discussed. It was concluded that this study goes beyond a description of effects of successful academic performance on peer group status and offers a means of changing peer group consequences of academic success. (Author/BW)