NCAA basketball tournament selection process
Encyclopedia
The selection process for College basketball
's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
determines which 68 teams will enter the tournament, known as March Madness, and where they will be seeded and placed in the bracket. Thirty teams have automatic bid
s by winning their conference tournament
; the Ivy League
regular-season champion receives an automatic bid because the Ivy League has no conference tournament . Therefore, only 37 teams (the at-large bid
s) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament. The selection process primarily takes place on Selection Sunday and the days leading up to it. Selection Sunday is also when the brackets and seeds are released to the public.
The procedure is virtually identical for the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
except that there are no play-in games
. There are 33 at-large bids in the women's tournament, for a total of 64 teams, and selections are announced the following day, or Selection Monday.
, was the men's committee chair in 2001. Currently Richard Ensor, the Commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, serves on the women's committee. To avoid a potential conflict of interest
, committee members must leave the room when their own school (or schools, in the case of the conference commissioners) is being discussed, although they may answer factual questions (about injuries, etc.) if asked. An athletic director may be present when other schools from his or her conference are discussed, but he or she may only speak if asked.
† Committee Chairman
On September 1, 2011, LSU Athletics Director of Athletics Joe Alleva
and West Coast Conference Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich will join the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, replacing Gene Smith and Stan Morrison, whose terms expire then.
champion, qualifies automatically by winning the regular-season title, because the Ivy League does not hold a conference tournament. This ensures that every Division I conference has at least one representative in the NCAA Tournament. The only teams the selection committee selects are the 37 teams who receive at-large berths. Though each conference only receives one automatic bid, the selection committee can select any number of at-large teams from each conference.
The at-large teams generally come from basketball's top conferences: the ACC
, A-10
, Big East
, Big Ten
, Big 12
, C-USA
, MWC
, Pac-10, and SEC
. Many of these teams, however, are "on the bubble": they do not know if they will make the tournament or not until they see their name on TV (with TV cameras documenting their reaction).
A number of teams essentially know that they are assured of an at-large berth no matter their performance in their conference tournament. Most teams in the Top 25 in the national polls or RPI
are essentially guaranteed at-large berths even if they do not win their respective conference tournament. However, teams that have been ranked heading into Selection Sunday, but didn't win their conference tournament, have been left out or "snubbed" by the selection committee despite what the polls may say. The Missouri Valley Conference
has received the most snubs (5 RPI
top 40 teams excluded), with Missouri State
left out each of the last 9 years, despite RPI's of 21, 34, and 36). Another famous snub was in 2004, when Utah State completed the regular season with a record of 25-2, and was snubbed after losing in its conference tournament, even though it was ranked in the polls at the time.
's Joe Lunardi
. Other well-known experts in this field include Ken Pomeroy
of kenpom.com, Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com, and Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline.
Bracketology is conducted extensively for the men's tournament, although a few bracketologists also make projected brackets for the women's tournament, the most prominent being Charlie Creme's weekly projections on ESPN.com
.
championship game) before the brackets are officially unveiled, the committee cannot wait until after all the games are played to start determining the seeds. While nothing is set in stone until after all the games are played and the brackets are established, the committee may have a good idea of where a team is and where they could rise or fall depending on their showing in the later stages of their conference tournament. The women's tournament has the luxury of an extra day from the end of games on Sunday to prepare its brackets on Monday.
Though the brackets only feature the seed numbers 1-16 in each region, the committee assembles an S-curve of teams seeded from 1-64. In theory, the teams 1-4 on the seed list will all be #1 seeds (the #1 "seed line"), 5-8 will be #2 seeds (the #2 seed line), and so on; however, bracketing rules often lead to some deviation from this. The S-curve is most important for keeping each region balanced; ideally, each region will be equally strong. For example, the committee will try to ensure that the number 1 team on the seed list, the national #1 seed, will be in the same region as the weakest #2 seed. The committee tries to ensure that the top four seeds in each region are comparable to the top four teams in every other region. For example, if one region has the best #1 seed (#1 overall), the weakest #2 seed (#8 overall), the best #3 seed (#9 overall), and the weakest #4 seed (#16 overall), its seeds add up to 34, the ideal number. But if a region has the best team for every given seed, its seeds would add up to 28, and a region with the weakest team in every seed would add up to 40, making the two regions very unbalanced. It is extremely unusual that an at-large bid can be lower than a #12 seed, but it has occurred, most recently with Bradley and Air Force
being 13 seeds in the 2006 Tournament. While the seeds are almost never perfectly balanced throughout the four regions, the committee strives to ensure that they differ from each other by only a few points. The process is identical for the women's tournament, with the exception that seeding occurs to 64.
The selection committee uses a number of factors to place teams on the S-curve, including record, strength of schedule, the Ratings Percentage Index
(RPI), and a team's overall performance in recent games. The RPI rating is often considered a significant factor in selecting and seeding the final few teams in the tournament field, though the selection committee stresses that the RPI is used merely as a guideline and not as an infallible indicator of a team's worth.
, the Mideast designation became the Southeast, and later the South Regional in 1998
. The women's tournament continued to use the Mideast terminology through 2004
. In 2004, the NCAA started to identify the men's regions only by the city in which the regional semifinals and finals were played, with the same change being made for the women's tournament in 2005
. The NCAA reverted to the East/South/Midwest/West designations for the men's tournament starting in 2007
, but continues to designate women's regionals by their cities. Typically the cities selected will be spread throughout the country and conform roughly to the old geographic distinctions. While the regions are named for certain cities, the first and second round games are played in different cities which need not be anywhere near the regional finals. In 2005
the Austin
, Texas
men's regional was fed by games in Indianapolis
, Indiana
; Tucson
, Arizona
; Charlotte
, North Carolina
; and Worcester
, Massachusetts
. This is due to the "pod" system enacted before the 2002 tournament to minimize travel for as many teams as possible, especially in the early rounds. Any team may be sent to any region and any pod, although the tournament does try to keep teams, especially the top teams, closer to home. However, in 2004
, Pittsburgh
played its first two tournament games in Milwaukee and not in Buffalo
or Columbus
, cities to which it was closer. This was done to keep a lower-seeded team, the Wisconsin Badgers
, close to its campus. Similarly, two east-coast teams, Maryland
and Syracuse traveled to Denver, where their opening round opponents were BYU
and UTEP
, both of which were geographically closer to Denver. In addition, in the 2009
, Kansas and West Virginia
, the two higher seeds, were seeded in Minneapolis to play their opponents North Dakota State
and Dayton
, although Dayton and North Dakota State are geographically closer to Minneapolis than Kansas and West Virginia.
A number of complex rules govern the seeding process, so it is not as simple as merely following the S-curve, although that is the top priority according to the NCAA's rules . The better a team is, the more priority they have in remaining close to home, but no team can actually play on its home court if it is hosting tournament games (generally, games are hosted on neutral courts, so this is not usually a problem). Sometimes a top team may be a short drive away from its games; in 2006
Villanova
played its first and second round games in Philadelphia at an arena where they had played three games that year, one fewer than the four required for a site to be considered a "home court" for a team, and in 2002
the Pitt Panthers
played their first and second round games in the city of Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena, which they used occasionally for home games. In the women's tournament, this criterion does not apply and a team that is hosting is automatically assigned its home arena, regardless of seed. Thus, occasionally, lower seeded teams will host a game. For example, in 2006
Old Dominion
, although a 10th seed, played at its home court
in the first round and also would have played there in the second round had the Lady Monarchs won that game.
Teams are spread out according to conference. The first three teams selected from each conference must be placed in different regions. When a conference has more than three teams in the tournament, the committee tries to seed the teams so that they cannot meet until the regional final. Before 2006, this was an absolute rule. However, in the summer of 2005, the NCAA changed its rules to allow intraconference matchups as early as the second round of the tournament, assuming all measures to keep the teams apart until the regional finals have been exhausted. The NCAA was clearly preparing for the chance that a conference would place more than eight teams in the tournament, which became a realistic possibility when the Big East, already a power conference, expanded to 16 members, with several of the new members having traditionally strong programs.
The committee may move a team up or down one seed from its seed line in the S-curve in order to preserve other principles. While this may be seen as unfair in some instances, the seeding process is an inexact science anyway and a slight move in seeding is unlikely to affect the chances of any team.
The committee also takes into consideration other non-basketball factors. In 2003 the tournament mistakenly placed BYU
, a Latter-Day Saint school which has a policy of not playing games on Sunday, into a region where the team could be forced to play on a Sunday if they advanced to regional play. The NCAA then announced that they would switch BYU's region if they won their first two games, but since BYU lost, no action needed to be taken.
For 2011, the region names were slightly adjusted based on the locations of the regionals. The Midwest and South regions were replaced with the Southeast and Southwest regions, which will be held in New Orleans and San Antonio (these sites were determined when the NCAA was using city names as regional names). The regions will revert to the previous ones in 2012.
and ESPN
cover the selections for the men's tournament live; ESPN also covers selections for the women's tournament live. The NCAA committee gathers to select and place 68 men's teams and 64 women's teams that they deem worthy of an invitation to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
and the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
basketball tournaments that take place in March and April.
CBS
has the official rights to cover the selection of the men's tournament field as the TV network which covers the vast majority of the tournament (everything except the games aired on the networks affiliated with Turner Sports
). For this reason, CBS announces each bracket first, followed seconds later by ESPN. Both networks' coverage is augmented by discussion of the selections and predictions about how teams will fare once the tournament begins. ESPN has exclusive rights to cover selection for the women's tournament, as that network has sole rights to the women's tournament. Before 2006, the women's matchups were made in a selection show airing one hour before the men's matchups. However, beginning in 2006, ESPN has announced women's matchups in Selection Monday. This allows ESPN to focus the evening's coverage solely on women's basketball instead of providing token coverage for the women before devoting the rest of the evening on the men's matchups, and allows minor coverage of the secondary National Invitation Tournament
, to which ESPN holds full rights.
Both networks send camera crews to schools around the nation to capture their reactions when they find out what seed they received or if they even made the tournament at all. Once the teams are announced, millions of fans start to fill in their brackets.
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
determines which 68 teams will enter the tournament, known as March Madness, and where they will be seeded and placed in the bracket. Thirty teams have automatic bid
Automatic bid
Automatic bid is a term generally used to describe a bid or berth to a tournament, granted based on performance in prior competition, and not based on subjective picking...
s by winning their conference tournament
NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Conference Tournaments
A conference tournament in college basketball is a tournament held at the end of the regular season to determine a conference tournament champion. It is usually held in four rounds, but can vary, depending on the conference. All Division I Conferences hold a conference tournament except the Ivy...
; the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
regular-season champion receives an automatic bid because the Ivy League has no conference tournament . Therefore, only 37 teams (the at-large bid
At-large bid
An at-large bid is a bid or berth in a sporting tournament granted by invitation, not right. This term is most commonly used in the United States to refer to berths that the NCAA grants in its annual Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, although at-large berths are granted in almost...
s) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament. The selection process primarily takes place on Selection Sunday and the days leading up to it. Selection Sunday is also when the brackets and seeds are released to the public.
The procedure is virtually identical for the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
except that there are no play-in games
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Play-In Game
The Opening Round game, of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship was the first official game of the tournament, played between two of the lowest-seeded teams to qualify for an automatic bid to the tournament...
. There are 33 at-large bids in the women's tournament, for a total of 64 teams, and selections are announced the following day, or Selection Monday.
The selection committee
The ten-member selection committee is made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners throughout Division I men's and women's basketball. The committee is chosen to ensure that conferences from around the country, both major and mid-major conferences, are represented. Generally the men's selection committee consists of all men, and the women's selection committee consists of all women, although Judy Rose, the athletic director at CharlotteCharlotte 49ers
The Charlotte 49ers represent the NCAA Division I sports teams of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Charlotte joined the Atlantic 10 in 2005. The 49ers field 16 teams, 8 men and 8 women....
, was the men's committee chair in 2001. Currently Richard Ensor, the Commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, serves on the women's committee. To avoid a potential conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
, committee members must leave the room when their own school (or schools, in the case of the conference commissioners) is being discussed, although they may answer factual questions (about injuries, etc.) if asked. An athletic director may be present when other schools from his or her conference are discussed, but he or she may only speak if asked.
Current men's committee members
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Gene Smith Gene Smith (athletic director) Gene Smith is currently the athletic director for The Ohio State University. He was named the university's eighth athletic director on March 5, 2005. Prior to his tenure at Ohio State, he served as athletic director for Arizona State, Eastern Michigan, and Iowa State... † |
Ohio State University Athletic Director |
| Mike Bobinski | Xavier University Athletic Director |
| Ron Wellman | Wake Forest University Athletic Director |
| Jeff Hathaway | University of Connecticut Athletic Director |
| Lynn Hickey | University of Texas at San Antonio Athletic Director |
| Doug Fullerton | Big Sky Conference Commissioner |
| Scott Barnes Scott Barnes (athletics director) Scott Barnes has been the Athletics Director at Utah State University since March 2008. Utah State's teams are known as the Aggies and play in the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference.-Career:... |
Utah State University Athletic Director |
| Stan Morrison Stan Morrison Stan Morrison is a retired college basketball coach and athletic director. He was head coach of the USC Trojans team from 1979 to 1986, as well as San Jose State Spartans from 1989 to 1998 and Pacific Tigers from 1972 to 1979. He is currently the athletic director at UC Riverside... |
University of California, Riverside Athletic Director |
| Dan Beebe | Big 12 Conference Commissioner |
| Steve Orsini | Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church... Athletic Director |
† Committee Chairman
On September 1, 2011, LSU Athletics Director of Athletics Joe Alleva
Joe Alleva
Joe Alleva is the current athletics director at Louisiana State University. He officially started on July 1, 2008. He was formerly the athletics director at Duke University.-Duke Tenure:...
and West Coast Conference Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich will join the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, replacing Gene Smith and Stan Morrison, whose terms expire then.
Selecting the field
The selection committee must first decide which teams will compete in the tournament. 30 teams qualify automatically by winning their conference tournaments; one team, the Ivy LeagueIvy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
champion, qualifies automatically by winning the regular-season title, because the Ivy League does not hold a conference tournament. This ensures that every Division I conference has at least one representative in the NCAA Tournament. The only teams the selection committee selects are the 37 teams who receive at-large berths. Though each conference only receives one automatic bid, the selection committee can select any number of at-large teams from each conference.
The at-large teams generally come from basketball's top conferences: the ACC
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
, A-10
Atlantic Ten Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference is a college athletic conference which operates mostly on the United States' eastern seaboard. It also has two member schools in Ohio: Dayton and Xavier, located in Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. Another member, Saint Louis is located in St. Louis, Missouri...
, Big East
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...
, Big Ten
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
, Big 12
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...
, C-USA
Conference USA
Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports...
, MWC
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference , popularly known as the Mountain West, is the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I FBS . The MWC officially began operations in July 1999...
, Pac-10, and SEC
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
. Many of these teams, however, are "on the bubble": they do not know if they will make the tournament or not until they see their name on TV (with TV cameras documenting their reaction).
A number of teams essentially know that they are assured of an at-large berth no matter their performance in their conference tournament. Most teams in the Top 25 in the national polls or RPI
Ratings Percentage Index
The Rating Percentage Index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the systems by which NCAA basketball and baseball teams are ranked...
are essentially guaranteed at-large berths even if they do not win their respective conference tournament. However, teams that have been ranked heading into Selection Sunday, but didn't win their conference tournament, have been left out or "snubbed" by the selection committee despite what the polls may say. The Missouri Valley Conference
Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference is a college athletic conference whose members are located in the midwestern United States...
has received the most snubs (5 RPI
Ratings Percentage Index
The Rating Percentage Index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the systems by which NCAA basketball and baseball teams are ranked...
top 40 teams excluded), with Missouri State
Missouri State Bears
The Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears are the athletic teams representing Missouri State University. Missouri State athletics date back to 1908. Missouri State is in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, and most teams compete in the Missouri Valley Conference...
left out each of the last 9 years, despite RPI's of 21, 34, and 36). Another famous snub was in 2004, when Utah State completed the regular season with a record of 25-2, and was snubbed after losing in its conference tournament, even though it was ranked in the polls at the time.
Predictions and speculation
While the selection committee assembles to do the official work, many predictions are made by various people and organizations. Speculations and buzz can come from anywhere from random college basketball fans to senior bracketologists and experts on the selection process and the seedings, such as ESPNESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Joe Lunardi
Joe Lunardi
Joseph Lunardi is a college basketball analyst for ESPN. He was born in Philadelphia, he is a graduate of Haverford High School in Pennsylvania, and is a Saint Joseph's University alumnus. Lunardi currently lives in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania...
. Other well-known experts in this field include Ken Pomeroy
Ken Pomeroy
Ken Pomeroy is the creator of a popular college basketball website and statistical archive known as kenpom.com. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, tempo-based statistics for every NCAA Men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2003 season, as well as a...
of kenpom.com, Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com, and Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline.
Bracketology is conducted extensively for the men's tournament, although a few bracketologists also make projected brackets for the women's tournament, the most prominent being Charlie Creme's weekly projections on ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
.
Seeding
The selection committee's work to seed the teams is just as vital as their work to select the at-large teams. While the selection process starts before the seeding process, the two often overlap; with conference tournaments not finishing until Selection Sunday itself, and only one hour between the end of the last game (usually the Big Ten TournamentBig Ten Tournament
Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament.* Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament* Big Ten Conference Women's Basketball Tournament...
championship game) before the brackets are officially unveiled, the committee cannot wait until after all the games are played to start determining the seeds. While nothing is set in stone until after all the games are played and the brackets are established, the committee may have a good idea of where a team is and where they could rise or fall depending on their showing in the later stages of their conference tournament. The women's tournament has the luxury of an extra day from the end of games on Sunday to prepare its brackets on Monday.
Though the brackets only feature the seed numbers 1-16 in each region, the committee assembles an S-curve of teams seeded from 1-64. In theory, the teams 1-4 on the seed list will all be #1 seeds (the #1 "seed line"), 5-8 will be #2 seeds (the #2 seed line), and so on; however, bracketing rules often lead to some deviation from this. The S-curve is most important for keeping each region balanced; ideally, each region will be equally strong. For example, the committee will try to ensure that the number 1 team on the seed list, the national #1 seed, will be in the same region as the weakest #2 seed. The committee tries to ensure that the top four seeds in each region are comparable to the top four teams in every other region. For example, if one region has the best #1 seed (#1 overall), the weakest #2 seed (#8 overall), the best #3 seed (#9 overall), and the weakest #4 seed (#16 overall), its seeds add up to 34, the ideal number. But if a region has the best team for every given seed, its seeds would add up to 28, and a region with the weakest team in every seed would add up to 40, making the two regions very unbalanced. It is extremely unusual that an at-large bid can be lower than a #12 seed, but it has occurred, most recently with Bradley and Air Force
Air Force Falcons men's basketball
The Air Force Falcons men's basketball team represents the United States Air Force Academy, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in NCAA Division I basketball competition. They play their home games at the Clune Arena and are members of the Mountain West Conference. Their current head coach is...
being 13 seeds in the 2006 Tournament. While the seeds are almost never perfectly balanced throughout the four regions, the committee strives to ensure that they differ from each other by only a few points. The process is identical for the women's tournament, with the exception that seeding occurs to 64.
The selection committee uses a number of factors to place teams on the S-curve, including record, strength of schedule, the Ratings Percentage Index
Ratings Percentage Index
The Rating Percentage Index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the systems by which NCAA basketball and baseball teams are ranked...
(RPI), and a team's overall performance in recent games. The RPI rating is often considered a significant factor in selecting and seeding the final few teams in the tournament field, though the selection committee stresses that the RPI is used merely as a guideline and not as an infallible indicator of a team's worth.
Making the brackets
Once the S-curve is established the committee must place the teams throughout the four regions. They were originally referred to as East, Mideast, Midwest, and West. In 19851985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. This was the first year the field was expanded to 64 teams, from 53 in the previous year's tournament. It began...
, the Mideast designation became the Southeast, and later the South Regional in 1998
1998 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1998 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 1998, and ended with the championship game on March 30 at the Alamodome in San Antonio,...
. The women's tournament continued to use the Mideast terminology through 2004
2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament began on March 20, 2004 and concluded on April 6, 2004 when Connecticut won a third consecutive national championship, becoming only the second school in history to accomplish such a feat. The Final Four was held at the New Orleans Arena in...
. In 2004, the NCAA started to identify the men's regions only by the city in which the regional semifinals and finals were played, with the same change being made for the women's tournament in 2005
2005 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
-East Regional:-Midwest Regional:-Mideast Regional:-West Regional:-East Regional:-Midwest Regional:-Final Four:West-Tempe; Mideast-Chattanooga; East-Philadelphia; Midwest-Kansas City.-Record by conference:...
. The NCAA reverted to the East/South/Midwest/West designations for the men's tournament starting in 2007
2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 NCAA schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2006–07 basketball season...
, but continues to designate women's regionals by their cities. Typically the cities selected will be spread throughout the country and conform roughly to the old geographic distinctions. While the regions are named for certain cities, the first and second round games are played in different cities which need not be anywhere near the regional finals. In 2005
2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 15, 2005, and ended with the championship game on April 4 at the Edward Jones Dome in St...
the Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
men's regional was fed by games in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
; Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
; Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
; and Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. This is due to the "pod" system enacted before the 2002 tournament to minimize travel for as many teams as possible, especially in the early rounds. Any team may be sent to any region and any pod, although the tournament does try to keep teams, especially the top teams, closer to home. However, in 2004
2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2004, and ended with the championship game on April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio,...
, Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball
Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball is the NCAA Division I intercollegiate men's basketball program of the University of Pittsburgh, often referred to as "Pitt", located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pitt men's basketball team competes in the Big East Conference and plays their home games in...
played its first two tournament games in Milwaukee and not in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
or Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, cities to which it was closer. This was done to keep a lower-seeded team, the Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball
The Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team is a NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the Kohl Center, located on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin....
, close to its campus. Similarly, two east-coast teams, Maryland
Maryland Terrapins men's basketball
The Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I competition...
and Syracuse traveled to Denver, where their opening round opponents were BYU
BYU Cougars men's basketball
The BYU Cougars men's basketball team represents Brigham Young University in NCAA Division I basketball play. Established in 1902, the team has won 30 conference championships and 2 NIT Tournaments , and competed in 26 NCAA Tournaments. It currently competes in the West Coast Conference...
and UTEP
UTEP Miners men's basketball
The UTEP Miners basketball team is an NCAA Division I men's college basketball team competing in the Conference USA. Home games are played at Don Haskins Center, located on University of Texas at El Paso's campus in El Paso.-Don Haskins Center:...
, both of which were geographically closer to Denver. In addition, in the 2009
2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The first and second round games were played at the following sites:First and Second Rounds: Thursday and Saturday, March 19 and 21, 2009-Qualifying teams:-Brackets:Results to date * – Denotes overtime periodAll times in U.S. EDT....
, Kansas and West Virginia
2008–09 West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team
The 2008–09 West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team represents West Virginia University in the 2008-09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season...
, the two higher seeds, were seeded in Minneapolis to play their opponents North Dakota State
2008–09 North Dakota State Bison men's basketball team
The 2008–09 North Dakota State Bison men's basketball team represents North Dakota State University. The Head Coach is Saul Phillips. The team plays its home games in the Bison Sports Arena in Fargo, North Dakota, and is a member of the Summit League...
and Dayton
Dayton Flyers men's basketball
The Dayton Flyers men's basketball team is a college basketball program that competes in NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Ten Conference representing the University of Dayton. They are known for a rivalry with Xavier University, playing for the Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy each year.-History:The...
, although Dayton and North Dakota State are geographically closer to Minneapolis than Kansas and West Virginia.
A number of complex rules govern the seeding process, so it is not as simple as merely following the S-curve, although that is the top priority according to the NCAA's rules . The better a team is, the more priority they have in remaining close to home, but no team can actually play on its home court if it is hosting tournament games (generally, games are hosted on neutral courts, so this is not usually a problem). Sometimes a top team may be a short drive away from its games; in 2006
2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2005–06 basketball season...
Villanova
Villanova Wildcats men's basketball
This is the article about the men's basketball team from Villanova University. The team has competed since the 1920–21 season. Nicknamed the "Wildcats", Villanova is a member of the Big East Conference and the Philadelphia Big Five. The Villanova Wildcats have appeared in the NCAA...
played its first and second round games in Philadelphia at an arena where they had played three games that year, one fewer than the four required for a site to be considered a "home court" for a team, and in 2002
2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 2002, and ended with the championship game on April 1 in Atlanta, Georgia...
the Pitt Panthers
Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball
Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball is the NCAA Division I intercollegiate men's basketball program of the University of Pittsburgh, often referred to as "Pitt", located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pitt men's basketball team competes in the Big East Conference and plays their home games in...
played their first and second round games in the city of Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena, which they used occasionally for home games. In the women's tournament, this criterion does not apply and a team that is hosting is automatically assigned its home arena, regardless of seed. Thus, occasionally, lower seeded teams will host a game. For example, in 2006
2006 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
-Albuquerque:-Bridgeport:-San Antonio:-Cleveland Regional:-Albuquerque Regional:-Bridgeport Regional:-San Antonio Regional:-Final Four – TD Banknorth Garden :...
Old Dominion
Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
, although a 10th seed, played at its home court
Ted Constant Convocation Center
The Ted Constant Convocation Center is a 9,520-seat multi-purpose arena in Norfolk, Virginia, located on the campus of Old Dominion University. "The Ted" has 7,519 fully cushioned seats, 16 luxury suites, and a state-of-the-art scoreboard. The arena currently seats 8,639 for basketball games...
in the first round and also would have played there in the second round had the Lady Monarchs won that game.
Teams are spread out according to conference. The first three teams selected from each conference must be placed in different regions. When a conference has more than three teams in the tournament, the committee tries to seed the teams so that they cannot meet until the regional final. Before 2006, this was an absolute rule. However, in the summer of 2005, the NCAA changed its rules to allow intraconference matchups as early as the second round of the tournament, assuming all measures to keep the teams apart until the regional finals have been exhausted. The NCAA was clearly preparing for the chance that a conference would place more than eight teams in the tournament, which became a realistic possibility when the Big East, already a power conference, expanded to 16 members, with several of the new members having traditionally strong programs.
The committee may move a team up or down one seed from its seed line in the S-curve in order to preserve other principles. While this may be seen as unfair in some instances, the seeding process is an inexact science anyway and a slight move in seeding is unlikely to affect the chances of any team.
The committee also takes into consideration other non-basketball factors. In 2003 the tournament mistakenly placed BYU
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, a Latter-Day Saint school which has a policy of not playing games on Sunday, into a region where the team could be forced to play on a Sunday if they advanced to regional play. The NCAA then announced that they would switch BYU's region if they won their first two games, but since BYU lost, no action needed to be taken.
For 2011, the region names were slightly adjusted based on the locations of the regionals. The Midwest and South regions were replaced with the Southeast and Southwest regions, which will be held in New Orleans and San Antonio (these sites were determined when the NCAA was using city names as regional names). The regions will revert to the previous ones in 2012.
Selection Sunday
Selection Sunday is the day when the NCAA College basketball tournament participants are placed, seeded accordingly, and announced. Both CBSCBS Sports
CBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
and ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
cover the selections for the men's tournament live; ESPN also covers selections for the women's tournament live. The NCAA committee gathers to select and place 68 men's teams and 64 women's teams that they deem worthy of an invitation to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
and the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
basketball tournaments that take place in March and April.
CBS
College Basketball on CBS
College Basketball on CBS presented by State Farm is a presentation of men's NCAA Division I basketball games on CBS...
has the official rights to cover the selection of the men's tournament field as the TV network which covers the vast majority of the tournament (everything except the games aired on the networks affiliated with Turner Sports
Turner Sports
Turner Sports is the division of Turner Broadcasting System responsible for sports broadcasts on Turner channels including TBS, TNT, and TruTV, and for operating the interactive properties , , , and...
). For this reason, CBS announces each bracket first, followed seconds later by ESPN. Both networks' coverage is augmented by discussion of the selections and predictions about how teams will fare once the tournament begins. ESPN has exclusive rights to cover selection for the women's tournament, as that network has sole rights to the women's tournament. Before 2006, the women's matchups were made in a selection show airing one hour before the men's matchups. However, beginning in 2006, ESPN has announced women's matchups in Selection Monday. This allows ESPN to focus the evening's coverage solely on women's basketball instead of providing token coverage for the women before devoting the rest of the evening on the men's matchups, and allows minor coverage of the secondary National Invitation Tournament
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are two NIT events each season. The first, played in November and known as the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off , was founded in 1985...
, to which ESPN holds full rights.
Both networks send camera crews to schools around the nation to capture their reactions when they find out what seed they received or if they even made the tournament at all. Once the teams are announced, millions of fans start to fill in their brackets.