Bracketology: Wins and losses should still matter to Selection Committee

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: Led by committee chairman Mark Hollis (3rd from L), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /

1 of 4

PITTSBURGH, PA – MARCH 15: A general view of the court with March Madness signage is seen prior to the start of the game between the OklahomaSooners and the Rhode Island Rams in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

In the age of Bracketology advanced metrics, is the selection committee on information overload? Will they forget about what fundamentally matters? Teams still have to win.

Part of what makes the NCAA Tournament the spectacle it is the selection process is subjective and in the hands of 10 members that cover a complete cross-section of the sport. Tasked with selecting and bracketing the teams that will compete in the tournament, the committee always has all the information necessary to give them the clearest picture about the teams they are discussing. Some of that information is compiled in the NCAA’s new NET rankings that are now being used as a sorting tool, replacing the, what many felt was the outdated RPI.

But, in the era of advanced analytics, there is a ranking out there for every committee member and the growing number of bracketologists that try and predict what the committee will do. If you’re looking for more results-based rankings, there are things like Strength of Record and KPI, but if you are looking for something that might help predict what a team might do in the future, you can use the likes of KenPom and Sagarin. What nugget of information each member of the committee favors over another is up to them.

While all this information can be useful, is there a point where it becomes information overload and some of the more important numbers get lost? With all these fancy numbers now at everyone’s disposal are what should be the most important metric, wins, and losses being lost in the shuffle? Let’s take a look at four teams, and as you look at each page pick two teams for at-large berths to the NCAA Tournament, and let’s see how your choices change.

NOTE: All statistics and rankings in this piece are through games on Feb. 18.

Teams and their records:

Team A: 17-9 (7-8 in conference)

Team B: 22-5 (11-4 in conference)

Team C: 15-10 (5-7 in conference)

Team D: 21-4 (12-2 in conference)

Based on these records, which two teams deserve the at-large berths?

Home/Bracketology