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NCAA alters March Madness selection process

By Jonathan Bass

Mar 19, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; General view of NCAA logo before the Iowa Hawkeyes practice before the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KeyArena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; General view of NCAA logo before the Iowa Hawkeyes practice before the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KeyArena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NCAA has altered its selection process for March Madness.

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The NCAA has slightly tweaked its selection process for March Madness, with the new rules going into effect this upcoming season. The changes are geared mostly toward the First Four teams that make up the tournament’s initial round, and they will allow for more flexibility when it comes to seeding and location.

According to its press release, the NCAA is working to come as close as an S-Curve as possible. Previously, the “last four in” at-large teams would be placed in the First Four games. This resulted in a situation last year where Dayton barely reached the tournament, but was afforded a home game. Now, thanks to new rules, teams can move up and down the seeding list to ensure more balanced play.

"“This change doesn’t mean we are going to a true S-curve but if we can achieve it, or come closer to having more competitive balance on the top two lines without compromising our existing principles and without putting a team at a great disadvantage, we will consider it,” [Oklahoma athletic director Joe] Castiglione said."

Another alteration includes sliding the fifth-best team out of its geographic location to prevent a conflict with the tournament’s overall top seed.

In other words, the way the tournament works is that higher seeds are rewarded with games closer to their campus. If Duke was the top-ranked seed in the tourney they would likely be placed as the No. 1 seed in the Southeast. Now if Kentucky was deemed the fifth-best team in the tournament (i.e. the top No. 2 seed), where in the past they would have also been given seeding in the Southeast, they now can be moved to another region. Previously it was a logical inconsistency to have the best No. 1 and No. 2 play a game at any point before the Final Four.

A third change to the process works to resolve any claims of nepotism, as selection members cannot be present at any discussions involving schools at which they have family members employed.

Tournament directors have called the changes “small, but significant.”

"“It’s a small, yet significant, alteration to the language outlining our seeding process,” said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, the chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee. “Making this change gives the committee the opportunity to properly seed every team, whereas previous procedures did not permit appropriate scrubbing of the last four at-large teams.”"

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