About the Competition

March Madness

The March Madness Basketball Tournament is a 68 team tournament held for 3 weeks every March. This single-elimination tournament involves the best college basketball teams in the country,  meaning either win 6 games in a row to become champion, or lose and go home


Statistics

The game of basketball involves all kinds of statistics. Points, rebounds, turnovers, wins, and assist-to-turnover ratio make up just some of the 31 we will look at in the competition. Although anything can happen, looking at stats can determine what teams have a better chance at winning

Data Analytical Battle

Combining statistics with basketball, groups of students will create algorithms with a spreadsheet of statistics to predict the top 10 teams of the next March Madness tournament. An algorithm is a set of rules described by the creator to calculate the top 10 teams. This can be done via filters and functions (described further in the "Getting Started" tab). After an algorithm is tested in prior years and applied for this years tournament, a score will be calculated by getting 10 points for each win from the top team in the algorithm, 9 points for wins from the second team, 8 for the 3rd, and so on down to 1 point for wins from the 10th team. Also, teams that are seeded lower and projected to lose in the first round are considered "Cinderella teams", and receive 5 bonus points for one win, 10 for a second win, 15 for the third, and so on. High risk, high reward.

Important Dates:

November 8, 2023 – March 15, 2024:  Algorithm development phase.

March 15, 2024:  Deadline for sponsors first collection of algorithms.

March 17, 2024:  Selection Sunday

March 18, 19 or 20, 2024:  Sponsors are provided the 2023 Excel spreadsheet.

March 21-24, 2024:  Rounds 1 and 2 of the NCAA tournament.

March 27, 2024:  Deadline for sponsors to submit evaluated algorithms to Rick Spellerberg.

March 28-31, 2024:  Rounds 3 and 4 of the NCAA tournament.

April 6, 2024:  The Final Four

April 8, 2024:  The Championship Game

NOTE:  Teams will be provided updates on competition results between the 2nd and 3rd rounds, and after the 4th round.   The final competition results will be announced as soon as possible after the championship game.