Description:
Read one article and then answer the questions one by one.
Question Set #29: Coleman, DuMond & Lynch MDE 2010
Read the article and answer the questions one by one.
Coleman, B. Jay, J. Michael DuMond & Allen K. Lynch. 2010. “Evidence of Bias in NCAA Tournament Selection and Seeding”, Managerial and Decision Economics. 31: 431-452.
1. Interpret the empirical results for each specification for both the logit and the odds ratio estimates from Table 4.
2. Interpret the empirical results for each specification for both the cumulative probit and the OLS estimates from Table 5.
3. The authors find bias in the selection and seeding of NCAA basketball teams. Explain how their conclusions are supported by the data.
MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS Manage. Decis. Econ. 31: 431-452 (2010) Published online 1 March 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/mde.1499
Evidence of Bias in NCAA Tournament Selection and Seeding
B. Jay Coleman”, J. Michael DuMondb and Allen K. Lynch aDepartment of Management, Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA bCharles River Associates, Tallahassee, FL, USA ‘Stetson School of Business and Economics, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA
We investigate bias in the selection and seeding decisions of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Using data on 910 teams associated with the ten tournaments from 1999 to 2008, we test for bias toward teams from seven ‘major’ conferences and six `mid-major’ conferences, as well as for bias toward teams represented on the Committee. We find substantial support for the hypothesis of bias in favor of virtually all major and mid-major conferences in selection and/or seeding, as well as evidence of bias toward majors over mid-majors. We also find substantial evidence of bias toward teams with some type of Committee representation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INTRODUCTION:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing body for major colle-giate sports in the United States, annually conducts its Division I men’s basketball national championship tournament (commonly known as simply the `NCAA Tournament’). Sixty-five teams currently participate each year and the champion is determined through 64 single-elimination games played over six rounds. A total of 31 teams receive invitations by virtue of winning their respective conference championship, which—with the excep-tion of the Ivy League—is determined by a con-ference tournament at the close of the regular season. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee (known commonly as the ‘selection committee’, and hereafter simply as the Com-mittee)—whose membership varies somewhat from year to year—is charged with determining
*Correspondence to: Department of Management, Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32224-7699, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
the tournament’s 34 at-large invitees, as well as assigning seeds to all 65 teams and placing each in one of four separate regional brackets. The tour-nament field, as selected by the Committee, is organized into four regional brackets.’ The best team in each bracket, according to the Com-mittee’s judgment, receives a number 1 seed, and the weakest receives a number 16 seed. (Two of the 65 teams are matched in a `play-in game’ to earn one of the 16 seeds in a bracket.) The first four rounds of competition take place within the regional brackets. In the last rounds, commonly known as the ‘Final Four’, the regional champions compete to determine the overall champion. There are financial impacts to the conferences whose schools are included and advance in the tournament. In 2008, each conference was to receive $1146078 ($19 1013 per year to be paid out over the ensuing 6 years) from the NCAA for each tournament game in which one of their respective teams participated (not including the championship game) (Nagel, 2008). Thus, each extra team selected as an at-large participant.