Selection Sunday: March 14, 2010
The field of 65 will soon be chosen on the day that all the teams are waiting for, Selection Sunday. Below are some good sites full of information to help get you ready for the big day. The play in game will be held on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 in Dayton, OH. Here the 64th and 65th team get to play to decide who will be squashed by the #1 Seed!
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Dick Vitale
It's Awesome Baby! Via the ESPN website, Dick Vitale spouts all information regarding the Madness that is March. Dick has tons of different sections and predictions. One of my favorite sections is his V-Speak section, where most of his famous quotes are detailed, such as Diaper dandy: sensational freshman or Strawberry Shortcake: NCAA tournament time, when the underachievers get their just desserts. He definitely is colorful, if not a little annoying at times.
Sportsline
Sportsline makes a bold statement and has posted it's bracket a week early - Sportsline Bracket 2 of their experts also reveal their thoughts - Gregg Doyel and Tony Meija give a detailed analysis of the expected Selection Sunday picks.
UCS Rankings
This data packed site ranks all the Division I NCAA teams. Shows which teams have made it to the Big Dance and gives a great list of which teams are on the Bubble. It also links to all the Conference Tournament schedules.
Sports Illustrated
More Bubble team analysis can be found here at the Sports Illustrated / CNN sports website. Their chart will be updated continuously between now and Sunday to reflect the results of the conference tournaments.
NCAA Sports
NCAA Sports has a very in-depth description on how Selection Sunday works. The page entitled Principles and Procedures for Establishing the Men's Bracket gives a step by step procedure on how the bracket is filled out and how they determine which teams make the Big Dance! There are 10 steps in the Procedures for Seeding the Teams and there are 18 steps in the Principles for Placing Teams into Championship Bracket. There is enough detail to pass an ISO-9000 audit!
Dance Card
The Dance Card is a formula designed to predict which teams will receive at-large tournament bids from the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The Dance Card has never missed on more than three spots in any season. Over the entire 12-year period, the Dance Card correctly predicted 385 of the 410 available at-large Tournament slots (or 93.9% ). Over the 6-year period (2000 through 2005) for which the Dance Card has been used since its initial development in 1999 (based on 1994 through 1999 data), it has correctly predicted 193 out of the 205 available at-large Tournament slots ( 94.1% ).