NCAA Tournament Selection Process Dominates BIG EAST Roundtable Conversation
By Richard Finn
Special to BIG EAST.com
NEW YORK – Once more assuming its position as one of the sport’s foremost thought leaders, the BIG EAST Conference hosted its fourth annual Basketball Roundtable on Friday.
Featuring panelists from member schools, broadcasters, journalists, TV and sports industry executives, the gathering attracted a full room at the Westin Grand Central just hours before the tipoff of the BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament presented by Jeep semifinals across town at Madison Square Garden.
“This is the chance that we get to take every year to get experts in higher education and sport of basketball to talk about some of the current topics, current trends and the opportunities and challenges before the game and sport of college basketball, “ said BIG EAST commissioner Val Ackerman in her opening remarks.
“This is a big event for us and one that we are very honored to be hosting,” said Ackerman.
In keeping the conversation timely with many conference post-season tournaments wrapping up by the weekend in advance of Selection Sunday, the panel of former coach and current FOX Sports analyst, Steve Lavin, Eric Wieberg, NABC Director of Digital and Social Media and CBSSports.com writer Matt Norlander engaged in a lively far ranging discussion on the BIG Dance selection process appropriately called “Who Gets In.”
“It is such a through and dense process, “ stated Norlander. “It is an imperfect process. You can never please everyone. Every team will be moved by how the universe around it moves. No team is playing in a vacuum.”
Lavin cited several factors that are used presently as benchmarks by the Selection Committee to fill out and seed the 68-team draw.
“One of the things that jumps out is strength of schedule as you have to challenge yourself, and I know that the committee looks upon that as positive. Whether road or home wins, at the end of the day you have to accumulate quality wins, “ said Lavin
“More recently there has been these various metrics, predicators that are coming into play, while the RPI is still in the mix and one of the instruments, it seems that because of technology the committee is tweaking and working with some of these other tools to try to find the best and fair way to measure teams,” continued Lavin.
But Lavin emphasized that there was one more ingredient in the mix that had nothing to do with computer numbers.
“For me as a coach the most interesting one is the eye test, the optics, that one is less science and more feel and intuition, a sense and I think that is a critical piece as well,” said Lavin, who coached in eight NCAA tournaments during his stints on the bench at UCLA and then St. John’s.
It can come down to the eye test in making one team happy on Selection Sunday and another one with an almost identical record disappointed according to Lavin.
“It is clear when everything is equal with the metrics, the two things that really emerge who did you beat and the eye test,” said Lavin
“It is subjective even though you try to be objective and you want more science, the reality is that we are influenced and it becomes subjective,” said Lavin.
A shift in the selection process away today’s model could come as soon as next year according to Wieberg.
“I think we are at an interesting point just with the growth of data and analytics, and the selection process probably starting next year, will probably start to reflect more of those advance analytics,” said Wieberg
In the closing discussion the panel was in unanimous agreement of the unique spot in today’s sports landscape that the NCAA Tournament and college basketball commands.
“Along with the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty teams, college basketball is a fourth franchise for us here at the Garden,” said Joel Fisher, Executive VP, Marquee Events and Operations for Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden is hosting the BIG EAST tournament for the 35
th consecutive year, a mark unmatched in the sport. In 2014 the NCAA East Regionals were held at the Garden and in two weeks the EAST Regionals will be coming back to the storied arena.
“These events whether they are the BIG EAST tournaments, the NCAAs are the biggest and best events in the world,” said Fisher. “These type of events are what we are all about. I don’t believe that we can call ourselves the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ if we don’t have events like this.”
The panel moderator, the legendary sports TV executive Neil Pilson, emphasized the significance of the national reach of March Madness in today’s times.
“It is a unique event,” said Pilson. ”It’s not like the World Series or the Super Bowl with just teams from two cities. This is an event where you often have 25-30 states represented in the tournament.
“In a time in our country when unfortunately is divided the tournament is something that brings us together.”