Grading The NCAA March Madness Selection Committee Through Two Rounds

Stathole3/21/2023 7:00 PM

For the past couple years I've been evaluating the evaluators that is the NCAA Selection Committee. These guys sit behind the curtain and pretty much just get to decide who makes the tournament using some secret methodology we common folk are not privy too. Maybe they just get a call from the Illuminati. Maybe they open up Excel and run a quick RANDBETWEEN() so they can talk about more important things like how to siphen NIL money. I don't know, but looking at the dots on the graph above you can see that the golden age of the 1980s - 1990s is long gone and it appears in recent years this committee might no longer know ball.

The blue dot for this season falls firms into a "meh shit happens" grade which is actually a bit surprising seeing as two #1 seeds have already bit the dust. Had FDU pulled through we'd be in "shit's whack", but that didn't happen so credit where credit is due. If Purdue hadn't Purdidn't and instead Purdid, we'd be right into the green "I See You Committee" grade. Even so, there was still a lot of madness going on which is a good reminder to us all that even when the Selection Committee is doing a decent job, the madness and the chaos still thrives. That makes the 2021 result all the more insane. This was the year that UCLA made the Final Four as an 11 seed with Loyola (8), Oregon State (12), Syracuse (11), and ORAL ROBERT (15) also making it to the Sweet 16. More than fair to blame the effects of COVID wiping out 2020 on all of this but that was still a absolute wild one.

So good job Selection Committee. I thought I'd be firing you to the sun at half time of Houston / Auburn but you steered through that storm perhaps by sending Auburn their script to make only four total shots the second half while also missing most of their free throws as well. And don't think I didn't notice Houston's free throws continually dance in circles on the rim every shot before miraculously going in every time. I'm not saying you magnetized the ball or anything but I'm also not saying you didn't.

Selection Committee during every Houston second half free throw

Bonus. In case you were wondering how things stood after the first round: