123:, the NET, and the seeding and balancing process, a "bracketologist" places teams in the tournament in the various regions (most commonly East, West, Midwest, and South however sometimes the region names are changed to reflect the host cities). Some bracketologists go as far as placing teams in which "pods" they will play in the first and second rounds. Generally, the lists also show the last four teams in and the first four teams out. However, these brackets change daily as
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A bracketologist's credibility is judged on how many teams they predict correctly being in the tournament and the average difference between the bracketologist's projected seed and the actual seed assigned by the NCAA Selection
Committee. The difference between projected matchups and the differences
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the field by ranking all teams from first through sixty-eighth. Bracketology also encompasses the process of predicting the winners of each of the brackets. In recent years the concept of bracketology has been applied to areas other than basketball.
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became famous for his bracket predictions. After entering office, he presented his projected winners annually on ESPN in a segment called Barack-etology. However, in 2015 he was bested by his former political rival and 2012 presidential nominee,
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between the "pods" selected in the first and second rounds are less important. Typically, bracketologists measure their success by comparing their projected seed lists to other bracketologists, as can be seen on the bracket matrix.
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added an 80-page postseason supplement which was released the night the brackets were announced. So that the release could be timely, Lunardi began predicting the selection committee's bracket. On
February 25, 1996,
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Bracketology as a discipline has spread beyond a focus on basketball, into other sports, as well as pop culture, history, nature, and other topics where a loose application of
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through the 2018 tournament, and the NCAA Evaluation Tool since 2019) in order to determine at-large (non-conference winning) teams to complete the field of 68 teams, and, to
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158:'s 2015 Tournament Challenge. Romney correctly predicted six of the "Elite Eight" teams, all of the "Final Four" teams, both teams in the championship game matchup, and that
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Various methods are used to predict the winners in a bracket. While some use math and statistics, others make selections based on team mascots or colors. President
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96:, which is the first known instance the term was applied to a college basketball expert. While Lunardi did not recall using the term before its use in the article,
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400:"Kittles A Factor In Ncaa Bracket If Villanova Crashes Without Its Suspended Star, Its Shot At A No. 1 Seeding Is Gone. Uconn Stands To Gain"
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writer Mike Jensen credits its origins to
Lunardi. Lunardi soon started the website Bracketology.net, and
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By 2002, Lunardi had his own
Bracketology page with ESPN. He also teaches an online course at
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may be profitable for study or enjoyment, albeit without the label of "bracketology" itself.
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The Final Four of
Everything | Book by Mark Reiter, Richard Sandomir - Simon & Schuster
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Publisher website for The Final Four of
Everything by Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir
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492:"Bracketology: March Madness Brackets Are Everywhere, Including Cincinnati Classroom"
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for the postseason. It incorporates some method of predicting the metrics the
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basketball tournaments, named as such because it is commonly used to fill in
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Predicting the participants and seeding of an NCAA basketball tournament
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began running his predictions in exchange for a link to his website.
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561:"President Obama's Brackets: Apolitical, Cautious And Full of Chalk"
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This spread has been helped along by literary agent and writer
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continue and teams automatically qualify for the tournament.
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584:"Mitt Romney's March Madness bracket was astoundingly good"
602:"Bracket Smackdown! Create Your Final Four of Everything"
538:"Obama's Bracket: Michigan State vs. Louisville in Final"
81:, a preseason guide roughly 400 pages long. In 1995,
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211:Sorting It All Out... with Brackets : NPR
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444:"The Bracket Project's Bracket Matrix - 2024"
8:
121:NCAA basketball tournament selection process
1421:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
757:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
227:"Books -- 'The Enlightened Bracketologist'"
77:. Lunardi had been editor and owner of the
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733:
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697:ESPN: Charlie Creme's Women's Bracketology
33:is the process of predicting the field of
469:"March Madness Bracketology: The Science"
707:DRatings: Donchess NCAA/NIT Bracketology
421:Bracketology | Saint Joseph's University
268:"Mark Reiter -- The Real Baracketology"
203:
111:titled "Fundamentals of Bracketology".
79:Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook
692:ESPN: Joe Lunardi's Men's Bracketology
687:Bracketology article in New York Times
658:: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
651:
7:
571:from the original on March 15, 2015.
548:from the original on March 19, 2015.
525:from the original on March 21, 2015.
502:from the original on March 14, 2015.
479:from the original on March 15, 2015.
387:from the original on March 12, 2017.
73:is credited with inventing the term
536:Corasaniti, Nick (March 19, 2014).
410:from the original on April 2, 2015.
357:from the original on April 2, 2015.
305:Robinson, Tom (February 26, 2006).
141:March Madness pools § Brackets
398:Jensen, Mike (February 25, 1996).
25:
345:Dietz, Brian (January 21, 2006).
311:can plant seeds of a rich spring"
225:; Reiter, Mark (March 22, 2007).
582:DeMartino, Joe (April 7, 2015).
1361:Final Four appearances by coach
559:Bialik, Carl (March 31, 2014).
490:Pells, Eddie (March 19, 2013).
347:"Ten questions for Joe Lunardi"
251:. April 4, 2009. Archived from
377:"Marching Madly Into Brackets"
375:Zimmer, Ben (March 21, 2014).
266:Reiter, Mark (April 3, 2009).
1:
1389:Division I Women's Tournament
188:The Final Four of Everything
515:"Presidential Bracketology"
166:Non-basketball applications
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138:
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521:. Major League Baseball.
404:The Philadelphia Inquirer
191:, which was published by
109:Saint Joseph's University
92:referred to Lunardi as a
89:The Philadelphia Inquirer
37:participants in the NCAA
1376:Team appearances by seed
1332:Records & statistics
51:NCAA Selection Committee
1401:Division III Tournament
1356:Final Four participants
1351:Consecutive appearances
1268:Most Outstanding Player
432:Columns - CBSSports.com
381:The Wall Street Journal
285:The Tournament of Books
115:Predicting participants
55:rating percentage index
1395:Division II Tournament
1256:Champions & awards
181:and sports journalist
125:conference tournaments
1309:Cutting down the nets
162:would win the title.
498:. Associated Press.
193:Simon & Schuster
1314:March Madness pools
1277:Media & culture
702:Nit Tournament 2020
565:fivethirtyeight.com
315:The Virginian-Pilot
272:The Washington Post
249:The Washington Post
231:The Washington Post
47:tournament brackets
1320:One Shining Moment
712:The Bracket Matrix
542:The New York Times
496:huffingtonpost.com
475:. March 15, 2012.
135:Predicting winners
53:will use (such as
35:college basketball
1408:
1407:
1263:List of champions
1222:Selection process
608:on April 24, 2009
448:bracketmatrix.com
255:on April 5, 2012.
223:Sandomir, Richard
172:binary opposition
16:(Redirected from
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245:"Baracketology"
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1341:Team records
1289:Bracketology
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642:. Retrieved
635:the original
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610:. Retrieved
606:the original
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473:Discover.com
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451:. Retrieved
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323:. Retrieved
319:the original
314:
309:Bracketology
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147:Barack Obama
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75:bracketology
74:
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31:Bracketology
30:
29:
1284:Blue bloods
1242:Elite Eight
1232:No. 1 seeds
765:Tournaments
307:"One man's
179:Mark Reiter
152:Mitt Romney
83:Blue Ribbon
71:Joe Lunardi
1386:See also:
1302:Final Four
1297:Tournament
1247:Final four
1237:First Four
199:References
139:See also:
119:Using the
66:Background
1215:Structure
325:March 11,
1415:Category
654:cite web
569:Archived
546:Archived
523:Archived
500:Archived
477:Archived
408:Archived
385:Archived
355:Archived
98:Inquirer
453:May 30,
43:women's
1371:Upsets
1227:Venues
644:May 5,
612:May 5,
638:(PDF)
631:(PDF)
39:men's
1205:2025
1199:2024
1194:2023
1189:2022
1184:2021
1178:2020
1172:2019
1167:2018
1162:2017
1157:2016
1152:2015
1147:2014
1142:2013
1137:2012
1132:2011
1127:2010
1122:2009
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797:1944
792:1943
787:1942
782:1941
777:1940
772:1939
660:link
646:2009
614:2009
588:ESPN
455:2024
327:2006
160:Duke
156:ESPN
102:ESPN
59:seed
41:and
287:at
1417::
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656:}}
652:{{
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.