Each year toward the latter part of the month of March, sixty eight of the premier college basketball teams square off in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. In the first round, eight college basketball teams compete for the final four of the sixty four spots in the second round of the tournament. After the first round, sixty four teams remain. After the next round, thirty two teams remain. Each successive round, half of the remaining teams are eliminated; whereas, the other half move on to the next round. In each of the four different regions, the teams in that region are seeded from one to sixteen; one being the highest seed, and sixteen being the lowest seed. Any team advancing to the fourth round is said to have reached the “Sweet Sixteen”; whereas, any team reaching the fifth round is said to have reached the “Elite Eight”. Teams reaching the sixth round are said to have reached the “Final Four”. The team that wins the tournament must win six games in succession (seven if that team played in the first round).
The higher seeded team is always given the privilege of being the home team, regardless of the location of the basketball game. The home team always wears the light colored uniform. The number one seeded team plays the number sixteen seed in each region in the second round of the tournament. Obviously, the first seed would be the home team. Similarly, the second seed plays the fifteenth seeded team; and the third seeded team plays the fourteenth seeded team in the tournament’s second round. As long as the higher seeded team wins each game, the best team will always play the worst team in the next round. However, when an upset occurs, this situation may no longer hold true. For example, if the fifteenth seed defeats the second seed then the fifteenth seed might square off against a lower seed than the sixth seed. In this way, there exists some unfairness to the fixed bracket structure of the NCAA Tournament. However, in order that traveling time for all of teams is minimized, it is impossible to vary the bracket structure each time an upset occurs within a region. In the NBA, traveling time is reduced automatically when a team plays multiple games against the same opponent. In the NBA, the higher seeded team receives the home field advantage in the pivotal seventh game, should it occur.
On the positive side, the fixed bracket structure provides some unpredictability to the tournament results. Unlike the professional playoffs, it is possible for a lower seeded team to advance, because it is always possible for a weaker team to beat a stronger team in one single game. In professional basketball, to advance, a team must win four of seven games. Weaker teams rarely advance. Furthermore, the weakest team that advances must play the strongest team that advances in the NBA. Therefore, the higher seeded teams have the best shot at advancing in each round in the NBA, even after an upset occurs. The occurrence of few upsets in an NCAA tournament is one sign that the teams were seeded properly in the NCAA Tournament. In professional basketball the seeds are determined strictly by their regular season record. There is no uncertainty to the rankings of the professional basketball teams. Despite the unpredictability of the NCAA tournament, a number one seed has never lost to a sixteenth seed.
There is no guarantee that the best sixty eight teams will play in the NCAA Tournament. Some teams receive automatic bids into the tournament by winning their conference tournament. Someday, the automatic bid might be given to the regular season conference winner rather than the conference tournament winner. This would put more weight on the regular season conference schedule, which is more prolonged than the conference tournament. When a team may or may not be ranked high enough to make the tournament, that team is said to be a “bubble” team. Sometimes when a weak team receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, a bubble team is eliminated from competing in the tournament. Bubble teams can also be chosen to compete in the NCAA Tournament based on their performance in their conference tournaments. Their performance in these conference games will certainly affect their seeding in the tournament. The criteria for choosing between bubble teams includes a team’s record, strength of schedule, top fifty wins, and a team’s injury status. Sometimes the “eye test” is applied to two teams to choose the higher ranked team. The eye test simply compares the two teams’ skill level. Even when a bubble team loses a game to a high ranking team, it may improve the team’s probability of being chosen for the NCAA Tournament. The best teams that are left out of the NCAA Tournament usually receive bids to the NIT Tournament. The NIT Tournament is not as prestigious as the NCAA Tournament.
