Procedure for NCAA Tournament Committee to Establish Brackets

[Shocker1976]

Two friends (a Beaker and a Tar Heel) provided the following explanation for how the ten member NCAA Tournament Committee will construct this year's NCAA Tournament Bracket. Their explanation makes sense to me but I admit that I do not know if they are correct or not.

1. Each committee member constructs a list of teams he/she thinks should play in the tournament, which is not challenged by others.
2. If eight of the ten members list a team then that team is in the tournament, which usually produces approximately 25 at-large invitees (32 invitations are automatically issued to conference champions).
3. Committee members then identify teams to be considered for the remaining at-large invitations. A listing of these teams is generated.
4. After discussions, committee members vote to award invitations to teams on the discussion list. Teams are placed in the tournament bracket based on a descending order of votes received.
5. During the selection process committee members constantly “review” the seeding assigned to teams; members can vote to switch a team’s seed.
6. Once the entire field is “reviewed” a final rank-ordered list (1-68) is generated and used to place teams in the tournament bracket based on distance from Region site. The committee has the option to place a team in a geographical location of greater “interest” but this rarely happens.
7. Placement of #3 seeds has potential to create an issue due to conference membership – first four teams placed in the tournament bracket from the same conference cannot be in the same region if all four teams are seeded #4 or better.
8. After placement of all #4 seeds, the committee checks to ensure regional balance using a simple math formula (rankings of the four teams in each bracket are totaled; these totals are then compared to one another to ensure a differential of less than 5).
9. Upon confirming regional balance of first four lines, remaining teams are placed using the same procedure with a new conference caveat – conference teams that have played one another only once during the season can play each other in the Round of 32; teams have played twice can not play one another until Sweet 16; and, teams that have played three times cannot play one another until Elite 8.