WEEKLY WHINE

Bracket befuddlement

As you know, there is a major basketball tournament currently underway in the United States. It features 68 teams made up of students who are being exploited for billions of dollars in a massive event that disrupts their studies while yielding massive financial rewards for the institutions with which they are affiliated, all while isolating them from those financial rewards in the illusion of an obsolete concept of amateurism that is laughable when one considers the lengths to which the NCAA goes in order to enforce that concept whilst simultaneously being unaware of the fact that “enforced amateurism” is really just another way to say “unpaid labour”.

But if you ignore that, the tournament is really quite an exciting event. Many questions will be answered over the next two weeks. Will a sixteenth seed defeat a first seed? [No.] Will a first seed fail to make it to the round of sixteen? [Yes.] Will a twelfth seed make it to the round of sixteen in an event that sounds much more shocking than it actually is? [Yes.] Will Harvard win a game? [Yes.]

But there are many other questions being raised by the tournament itself. We have received a great number of these questions, although we are still trying to find out why. Regardless, we will now answer some of these questions in this special edition of the GoobNet Mailbox: Bracket Befuddlement!

As a reminder, use of the GoobNet Mailbox without following the proper safety protocols may result in skin deficiency or adult onset lactose tolerance. Please mailbox responsibly.

I am watching the NCAA basketball tournament currently being held in the United States. This is a simple elimination tournament involving 68 teams. How are the teams decided?

– John Frigges
Coventry, England, UK

The NCAA has a selection committee made up of ten people, including athletic directors and conference commissioners, who decide which 68 of the 340 Division I schools will participate in the tournament. They also decide how to seed the teams and where to place them in the brackets.

But first, the committee must select the 37 at large participants. The winners of the 31 conferences within Division I qualify automatically for the tournament, and the other 37 are selected by the committee based upon performance during the regular season and the conference tournaments.

Once the teams are selected, the committee assigns them to places in the bracket. Each of the four regions has sixteen teams, so the number one seed is highest in each region and the number sixteen seed is lowest. The teams are placed based upon many factors, including the game locations [no team may play on its home court], distribution by conference [strong teams from the same conference are almost never placed in the same region], and history [the committee tries to avoid repeating a matchup that has recently occurred in the tournament].

In the tournament, four teams are given number one seeds. Which is the best overall team?

– Sara Jackerson
South Hill, AL, USA

Louisville is the top overall seed, according to the selection committee.

I don’t understand the first four games of the tournament. Why are two of them between sixteenth seeds, one between thirteenth seeds, and one between eleventh seeds?

– Jamie Wallingsley
Frankline, NY, USA

Two of the games involve the weakest automatic qualifiers, and the other two involve the weakest at large teams. In this case, all of the teams seeded twelve through sixteen were automatic qualifiers, with the exceptions of the Boise State-La Salle qualifying game and the University of California. Thus, La Salle won the thirteen seed in the West region, the lowest seed for an at large team.

However, California were the second lowest at large seed despite being ranked higher than any of the teams in the qualifying games. The winner of the Middle Tennessee-St Mary’s game should have taken the East 12 seed, and California should have been given the Midwest 11 seed.

We need a decision. Is the round of 64 really the “second round”?

– JaRondell Baker
Memphis, TN, USA

No. The round of 64 is the “first round”, and the round of 32 is the “second round”. The first four games are the “qualifying round”.

I am currently watching a game between California and Syracuse being played in San Jose, California. However, it is claimed that this game is in the East region. My awareness of American geography is low, but I know that California is on the western coast. So how can this game be in the East region?

– Juan Marras Segovia
Valencia, Spain

This is perhaps one of the most confusing parts of the tournament. The region designation applies only to the tournament structure: the winners of a given region’s four second round games advance to that region’s semifinals, regardless of where those games were actually held. In this case, as Syracuse won that game, they advance to the East regional semifinals to be held in Washington, DC.

The announcers have often said that a 16th seed has never defeated a first seed in the NCAA tournament. But have any of them come close?

– Jill Stricichev
Basin, IN, USA

Yes. In 1989, Princeton University lost 50-49 to Georgetown University, and East Tennessee State University lost 72-71 to the University of Oklahoma. Then, in 1990, Murray State University took Michigan State University to overtime before eventually falling 75-71.

Why does Dayton have so many games in the NCAA tournament? They always have the opening games, and this year they’re also hosting games in the first weekend.

– Ron Greene
Piscataway, NJ, USA

Dayton has been a very good tournament venue. It has hosted nearly a hundred tournament games all time, more than any other venue. There is usually high attendance; for instance, this year’s qualifying round games had attendances of over 12,000 each, in a venue that seats just over 13,000.

On behalf of the NCAA, I would like to notify you that the First Four games of the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament are in fact designated the First Round. The round in which 64 teams play is the Second Round, and the round in which 32 teams play is the Third Round. Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to more excellent coverage of our tournament from your organisation.

– Mark Emmert
Indianapolis, IN, USA

Go away. And give those players some of that money. They’re the ones doing all the work.