The Bracketology Brief: A Quick Guide to Understanding the NCAA Tournament

Happy March Madness! To all the sports fans out there, we have FINALLY arrived at the BIG DANCE, the NCAA Tournament 2018 where college basketball takes center stage, brackets get busted, and bets are collected. For all the wannabees, boyfriends and girlfriends of sports fans, or anyone in between, this is month that your friend or significant other indulges in nothing but basketball ALL DAY! As 2018 is the year of new beginnings, I personally think that there is no better time to begin your jump into the world of college hoops than by enjoying the amazing phenomenon that is the country's most prominent collegiate basketball tournament.   Every year this tournament features some of college basketball's biggest and brightest stars at schools and conferences across the country, all going head to head to claim the title of NCAA champion.

 This is all created and managed using a distinct system of brackets known as Bracketology. These brackets are composed of 68 teams each from one of the 32 qualifying collegiate conferences selected by the Division 1 Committee to possibly participate in the NCAA Tournament. These teams are ranked and compared based upon statistics, two of the most  important being Rating Percentage Index (RPI) and Basketball Power Index (BPI). RPI is simply a quantifiable method used as a ranking system with the basis being  both a team's wins & losses combined with their Strength of Record (SOR). While BPI is a combination of all key performance indicators of a team and is also a quantifiable method used to measure how many points above or below average a team is. 

These 68 teams are broken into four regions, The East, Midwest, West, & the South all featuring 16 schools each seeded ranking from 1-16 based on RPI & BPI index of regular season conference and non-conference games combined with their action the postseason conference tournament. Yes, I know, 16 x 4 = 64. Only 64 teams actually play in the tournament as eight of them are chosen to play each other for a certain seed that could not be decided upon within the committee. These teams are often bubble teams (a team that may or may not make the tournament) that are most similar in RPI and BPI rankings and in most cases have surprisingly won their postseason conference tournament. Each of these regions are initially divided into four brackets, detailed with four names per bracket of the schools that are in competing against one another. Its set up visually and strategically as a winner-takes-all system. The team that wins the game progresses in the bracket as a representation of their continuation in the tournament.  

This tournament has six rounds, they are the Round of 64, Round of 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, and the Championship Game. These rounds are all held in various locations around the country, usually beginning with one location per bracket segment, per region.  As the teams are eliminated, so are the arenas and the games are played in four different regions until the Final Four. In the Final Four the regional champion of the South competes against the like of the West and the East faces off with the Midwest. This leads to the title game where someone will be deemed NCAA Tournament Champion for that year. 

So, now that you have the basics, scroll down and check out this year's bracket!  Make sure to keep up with all of my coverage on this year's tournament!