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NCAA March Madness Research Paper

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Avid college basketball fans refer to it as NCAA March Madness. Because it is a one-and-done, single elimination format, it’s packed with excitement. Adding to the intrigue are the smaller schools, known as Cinderella’s, who endear themselves to the hearts of college basketball fans. Former Ohio State University coach Harold Olsen initiated the idea back in 1939.

From what was originally an eight school tournament, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has ballooned to 68 Division I schools. Deciding who is worthy, from over 300 division I colleges, is a difficult process. The final decision rests with the NCAA Selection Committee. Here is how that committee decides on which schools are worthy to make it to March Madness.

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This is one area that is frequently disputed. Occasionally, when a small conference school has a remarkable season, but lose in their conference tournament, that school will bump a major or mid-major school from consideration.

Big conference schools that have successful seasons are all but assured a spot in the tournament. Committee members discuss strength of schedule statistics, wins against highly ranked opponents and simple human feelings about which teams are more deserving.

As the actual selection of schools progresses, members use the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), to weight teams according to season long productivity. The RPI index is also a prominent factor in the final seeding. This is actually a very detailed formula.

The RPI includes the team’s winning percentage, their opponents winning percentage and even the opponents of their opponents winning percentage. This data is even further dissected into four quadrants that consider ‘good wins’ and even ‘bad losses’.

The final 64 teams are split into four regions. Teams are seeded from 1 to 16, and matched in reverse order of their seed. The number one seed opens against the lowest seed, and so forth, with the closest pairing being the #8 seed against the #9

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