NCAA Tournament Bracket Rules

The NCAA Division I basketball tournament is among the most thrilling events in sports. As conference tournaments end, the basketball world waits to hear the announcement of the field of 68 teams, as of the 2011 tournament, that will have the opportunity to play for the national championship. How the NCAA selection committee creates this exclusive bracket remains a mystery to many people. Here is a quick rundown of the things the committee has to do.

  1. Permitted Information

    • The committee sequesters itself in a specified location and takes part in discussions and analysis in order to select the best field of 68 teams, seed them and then place them in first-round games in the bracket. While there is no way to keep personal opinion out of it, making this far from an objective selection process, there are specific materials that are allowed in the room to use for discussion purposes. Among the materials permitted for use in team analysis are complete box scores, game summaries, notes, computer rankings such as RPI, head-to-head results, any pertinent information submitted on a team’s behalf, non-conference results, home and away results, and polls.

    Ballots

    • Each member of the NCAA selection committee is given a secret ballot on several occasions throughout the process. The ballots have two columns.

      The initial ballot is submitted prior to selection weekend and contains a list of all eligible Division I teams in alphabetical order. The first column is designated for the 37 teams that a member feels should be among the at-large selections for the tournament. The second column lists any other teams (as few or as many) that the member feels deserves serious consideration for inclusion.

      Any team that appears on all first-column lists or is absent from two or fewer first-column lists is automatically added to the list of at-large bids for the bracket.

    Under Consideration

    • Any team that did not have enough votes on the initial ballot, but did appear more than once in either column on the ballots automatically goes to an “under consideration” group. This group also includes any team that won its regular-season conference title or was recommended by more than one member prior to closing the first segment of voting.

      To fill the remaining openings in the bracket, each member must use a clean ballot and list the eight teams they feel are the best on the under consideration board. These teams do not need to be in any particular order. The same “all but two” rule used in the initial ballot advances teams to the field. This process repeats with the remaining teams until all 68 teams are in place.

    Automatic Bids

    • The NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament places 31 teams into the brackets automatically as a result of conference tournaments that take place at the end of the season. Whichever team wins the conference tournament championship gets into the "Big Dance" regardless of their regular-season performance. Theoretically, a team that was in last place at the end of its regular season could still be included in the bracket if the team won its conference tournament.

    Seeding

    • Seeding is done by ballot as well. Members list the best eight teams in their opinion to be compared with others. They use a point system with the best team getting eight points, down to the worst of the eight getting one point. All ballots are compared, and the four teams with the highest total points become the top seeds. All remaining teams go back into the pool and the process starts over for each seed. The teams are then placed in the brackets according to geographical location and in a way that prevents teams with a common conference from meeting prior to the regional finals.

    Conference Affiliations

    • Athletic directors or conference commissioners may be included in the selection process, but are not allowed to be present when discussions of their representative teams are taking place.