Championship Week!

Welcome to Championship Week!  Each Division I conference (with the exception of the Ivy League) follows up the regular season with a tournament to determine who will be receiving the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  As there are 31 Division I conferences, there are 31 teams that will automatically be included in the 68-team field as selected by the NCAA Selection Committee as a conference champion.  For the first time this year, the traditional 65-team tournament is expanding to 68 teams, which means that 37 teams will rely on the Selection Committee to select them as a participant in March Madness.  Given the expansion from 65 to 68 teams, it means that there is slightly more wiggle room than in years past, but the absolute, guaranteed way to get into March Madness is by marching through and winning the conference tournament.

Jimmer loves to talk about the NCAA Selection Committee.
BYU has a #4 RPI ranking.

The teams that are not able to win their conference tournament are referred to as "at-large" teams and will be at the mercy of the Selection Committee on what has become known as Selection Sunday, when the Selection Committee reveals the 68-team field.  Thankfully, the Selection Committee doesn't just choose the teams with the best name recognition or the teams whose fans will buy the most tickets, but they will meet during the latter part of this week leading up to Selection Sunday and be responsible for discussing the teams, comparing performances, and seeding the teams from 1-68.  There are 10 members of the Selection Committee made up of Athletic Directors and Conference Commissioners from around the country who come from both large and small conferences.  The NCAA also ensures that the committee consists of representatives from various geographical regions of the country.

Kansas is #2 in every
poll except the all-important
RPI ranking.

Now, to say the Committee has a difficult job is an understatement.  These 10 people are responsible for the fates of many coaches, players and athletic departments.  Remember, they are athletic directors and conference commissioners themselves, so they understand what the effects of their decisions will have on the individual teams.  In addition, to help the public better understand the grueling process of selecting the tournament field every year, the NCAA hosts a "mock" Selection Committee for certain members of the media.  A couple of experiences from this year's mock Selection Committee can be found here and here.  Good stuff!

As I wrote about in one of my previous posts, the AP rankings we often refer to throughout the season are determined by Associated Press writers, so there is little correlation, at times, between a team's rankings and their seed in the NCAA Tournament. One metric that is often discussed but never described is a team's "RPI".  RPI stands for Ratings Percentage Index.  It's a rating system used by the Committee (and other prognosticators) to determine a team's "worthiness" to be selected to the tournament.  A team's RPI score and ranking is based upon a team's own winning percentage (25% of the RPI score), the winning percentage of their opponents (50%), and even the winning percentages of their opponents' opponents (25%).  With 75% of an RPI score based upon strength of schedule, the use of this ranking encourages teams from both "major" conferences (Big East, Pac-10, Big 12, etc) and the "mid-major" conferences (MWC, Atlantic 10, WAC, etc) to schedule a balance of games throughout the season that are both winnable yet against good competition.  The RPI is definitely not an easy thing to understand, but all you need to know is this:  It is good to be #1!

Ohio State is positioned for a #1 seed
because of their current #2 RPI ranking.

The official NCAA RPI rankings can be found here.  Where is your team?