The Madness of March isn’t just confined to what happens on the basketball court. When discussing teams, there are a load of statistics, terms, and acronyms thrown out. There’s a team’s KPI, and BPI. The SOS and the SOR. The automatic bid and the at-large bid. It can be a bit daunting.
Maybe you’ve never heard of any of these, maybe you just need a quick refresher. Either way, we’ve compiled a list of the 29 most helpful terms when dealing with the NCAA tournament.
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Some of these are college basketball slang that you'll hear throughout the tournament, others are stats and phrases that the Selection Committee will use to determine the field. Understanding what they mean can go a long way in helping you make informed decisions while filling out your bracket.
MARCH MADNESS GLOSSARY:
At-large bid — Teams that receive a bid to the NCAA tournament are broken into two categories: At-large bids, and automatic bids. The selection committee hands out 36 at-large bids to teams that did not win their conference tournament, but impressed the committee enough to earn a trip to the tournament. There is no limit on the number of at-large teams the committee may select from one conference.
Automatic bid — In Division I, there are 32 conferences. Each has its own conference tournament at the conclusion of the regular season. Teams that win this tournament, regardless of their regular-season performance, automatically earn a trip to the NCAA tournament.
AP ranking – The Associated Press has been ranking the top basketball teams since 1948. In its current form, the poll ranks the top 25 teams in Division I via a ranking that is compiled from the ballots of 65 sports journalists across the country. The ranking has no official weight in the selection process, and even a No. 1 ranking in the AP poll does not technically guarantee a team a bid to the NCAA tournament. .
BPI — College Basketball’s Power Index, invented by ESPN, is a statistic that measures how far above or below average every team is, and projects how well the team will do going forward. The index uses two measurements to do this: BPI Offense (measure of a team’s offensive strength compared to an average offense) and BPI Defense (measure of a team’s defensive strength compared to an average defense). BPI is calculated by finding the difference between these two measurements. .
The bubble — A team that is “on the bubble” for the NCAA tournament is one whose qualification for the tournament could go either way. They’re on the verge of making the field of 68, but an invitation isn’t guaranteed.
Cinderella — Much like the titular character from the fairy tale, a Cinderella team is one that is much more successful than expected. Examples in March would be Villanova’s 1985 championship run, when the eighth-seeded Wildcats became the lowest seeded team to ever win the title, knocking off the heavy favorite Georgetown.
Defensive efficiency — A simple statistic that calculates the points allowed per 100 defensive possessions. For example, if Team A’s opponent scored 80 points in a game with 75 possessions, Team A’s defensive efficiency would be 106.7. .
Elite Eight — The fourth round of the tournament, when just eight teams remain, is known as the Elite Eight. This round is the final game for each regional, before the four winners move on to the national semifinal, known as the Final Four. Read our Elite Eight ultimate guide for more.
Final Four — The fifth round of the tournament, when just four teams remain, is known as the Final Four. This is the penultimate round of the tournament, when the winners of each regional face off for a chance to play in the championship game. Read our Final Four ultimate guide for more.
First Four — When the NCAA tournament was expanded to 68 teams, a new round was added to the format: The First Four. Four games, played on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday determine which of eight teams advance to the first round of the tournament. Read our First Four ultimate guide for more.
First four out — When ranking all 68 teams in the NCAA tournament, the First Four Out fall in spots 69-72. These teams will not make the NCAA tournament, but will be the top-seeded teams in the NIT Championship.
KPI — KPI Sports ranks every team’s wins and losses on a scale of -1.0 (the worst possible loss) to +1.0 (the best possible win), and averages these scores across a season to give a score to a team’s winning percentage. The formula uses opponent’s winning percentage, opponent’s strength of schedule, scoring margin, pace of game, location, and opponent’s KPI ranking.
Last four in — Another unofficial term, the "last four in" refers to the final four teams that receive at-large bids to the tournament. These are teams that are usually on the bubble as Selection Sunday draws near.
NET — NCAA Evaluation Tool is a new ranking in 2018-19 that relies on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. The ranking replaces RPI as the main sorting tool for the selection committee. Some of the unique aspects of the NET include the omission of game date and order (to give equal importance to both early and late-season games), and the inclusion of a cap of 10 points for winning margin (to prevent teams needlessly running up the score in a game where the outcome was certain). Read more about the NET here.
Offensive efficiency — Points scored per 100 offensive possessions. For example, if a team scored 95 points in a game with 85 possessions, their offensive efficiency would be 115.9.
Pace/Tempo — .
Per-40 stats — A reference used to compare two or more players who do not play the same amount of minutes per game. It is measured by taking each statistic, dividing it by the minutes played per game, and then multiplying it by 40 — a full regulation game. For example, if Player A scores an average of 20 points in 30 minutes of play, his points per-40 would be 26.7.
POM — Kenpom.com, run by . The site gives an overall rating to each Division I team throughout the season based on a multitude of advanced metrics. The Selection Committee uses these rankings to help evaluate teams.
Quadrants (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) — In order to determine the strength of a team’s wins or losses, the selection committee divides the team’s record into four quadrants on each team sheet. The quadrants are meant to serve as an indicator of how good a team’s wins are, or how bad their losses are. Each quadrant is divided based on a combination of the location of the game — Home (H), Neutral court (N), or Away (A) — and the opponent’s NET ranking.
- Q1: H: 1-30; N: 1-50; A: 1-75
- Q2: H: 31-75; N: 51-100; A: 76-135
- Q3: H: 76-160; N: 101-200; A: 136-240
- Q4: H:161-353; N: 201-353; A: 241-353
Regional — The NCAA tournament bracket is split into four regionals. The South, East, West, and Midwest. The first four rounds of the tournament are played in regionals, with the Elite Eight serving as the regional championship game. Teams are assigned a regional based on a combination of factors, such as overall seed, proximity to the regional, the other teams in that regional, and more.
RPI — The basic RPI (Rating Percentage Index) consists of a team’s Division I winning percentage (25 percent weight), its opponents’ winning percentage (50 percent weight) and its opponents opponents’ winning percentage (25 percent weight). Before the 2018-19 season, the RPI was one of the many metrics used by the selection committee, but it has since been replaced by the NET.
SAG — On a team sheet, “SAG” stands for Sagarin rankings, from sagarin.com. The Sagarin rankings account for score differentials, strength of schedule, and weights for how recent a game was (wins in February are worth more than wins in November). Sagarin rankings differ from KenPom rankings in that efficiency is not taken into account.
Seed — 68 teams earn bids to the NCAA tournament, and each one receives a seed — from 1 to 16 —that determines where the team will be placed in the bracket. After the First Four, there are four of every seed. The seeds are also ranked overall from 1 to 68. This overall ranking affects the order in which team locations are selected (with higher-ranked teams getting preference), and which teams play in the First Four (the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers go to the First Four).
Selection committee —The 10-member NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Committee is responsible for selecting, seeding and bracketing the field for the NCAA Tournament. School and conference administrators are nominated by their conference, serve five-year terms and represent a cross-section of the Division I membership.
MORE: What is the March Madness selection committee?
Selection Sunday — The day everyone waits for, when the Selection Committee announces the tournament field. This year, Selection Sunday is March 17.
Strength of record — is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team's W-L record is to achieve. SOR reflects the chance a typical 25th ranked team would have team's record or better, given the schedule on a 0 to 100 scale, where 100 is best.”
Strength of schedule — measures the difficulty of a team’s schedule, based on the win percentage of the team’s opponents.
RELATED: Explaining college basketball's strength of schedule
Sweet 16 — The third round of the tournament, where only 16 teams remain. The winner of each game will play in the Elite Eight. Read our Sweet 16 ultimate guide for more.
Team sheet — A one-page document for every team in Division I that helps the committee get a complete picture of that team’s performance during the season. The team sheets contain in-depth team information about strength of schedule, performance against top-50 teams and home/road records. Here's what a team sheet looks like:
