Filling out March Madness brackets can be overwhelming. There are so many games to pick and so much terminology floating around. These terms are supposed to help people pick the games, but if you don’t know what they mean, they can come across as confusing.
If you’ve encountered this issue, you have come to the right place.
March Madness terminology to know
At-large bid - These are teams that make it into the NCAA Tournament field by selection from the committee, not by winning their conference tournament.
Automatic bid - These are teams that make it into the NCAA Tournament by winning their conference tournament, which gives them an automatic spot in the field.
Bart Torvik - A site that offers a range of advanced statistics evaluating men’s college basketball teams and players, ranging from adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency to overall power rating to tempo.
BPI - Created by ESPN, the Basketball Power Index “is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is.”
Bubble - This refers to the last teams to make the tournament on an at-large bid. If you’re outside the bubble, you are one of the first teams that did not make the field.
Cinderella - Teams that outperform expectations for their seed line, making an extended run to at least the Sweet 16. Usually refers to double-digit seed teams from non-power conferences.
Final Four - The fifth round of the tournament consisting of the winners of each of the bracket’s four regions. These teams
First Four - The first action of the NCAA Tournament, although it is not the same as what is referred to as the first found. The final at-large selections and lowest-ranked automatic bids play to make it to the first round, or Round of 64.
KenPom - A site that publishes advanced statistics on men’s team performance. Known for its Net Rating, Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating metrics, but also measures strength of schedule net rating, adjusted tempo and more.
NET - The NCAA Evaluation Tool rates teams based on “game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.” It is the main sorting tool used by the selection committee.
Quad (1, 2, 3, 4) - Quadrants determine the strength of team’s regular season wins and losses by a combination of opponent NET ranking and game location. Quad 1 games are the most difficult, while Quad 4 games are the least difficult.
Q1: Home: 1-30; Neutral: 1-50; Away: 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
Strength of Record - Created by ESPN, SOR is “a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve.” It rewards winning games as well as playing against strong opponents.
Strength of Schedule - Measures the difficulty of a team’s schedule. Different sites have different strength of schedule metrics.
Wins Above Bubble - Introduced just last year, WAB aims to determine how many more or less wins a team got relative to the average bubble team against that same schedule. This metric took on added importance this year and was very relevant to the discussion around Miami (OH)'s inclusion in the field after an undefeated regular season in the MAC.
