The Selection Committee is the group that determines which teams will be invited to play in the NCAA Tournament each year. It’s a committee of 18 members, and each member serves one year as vice chair before moving into the role of chair for a single year. It is important for Selection Committees to have a chair and vice chair process like this because it helps with continuity, information transfer, and institutional memory from year to year.
In addition, committees should have a clear policy about conflicts of interest and ensure that these are reported and handled prior to review and assessment of nominations. Conflicts of interest could include working for a company associated with an applicant or having a family member in a position at a university that is a candidate. It is important to be transparent about the process for selecting prize recipients, and the committee should be able to report that the award selection process has been handled in accordance with Honors policies.
Selection Committees should also have a procedure for managing the process to reduce the likelihood of implicit bias. Ideally, meetings for discussions of prize nominations/selection should be conducted at a predetermined time in person (or by teleconference) with all members of the committee invited to attend. This way everyone is a part of the discussion, and research has shown that this can help mitigate implicit bias in making decisions.
As the Selection Committee prepares to make its choices for the tournament, members begin by watching dozens of games each week. By the time the committee meets on the Monday after the ninth week of the season, each member will have a list of 30 teams they believe deserve consideration. The committee is asked to rank each team on a scale of 1 through 68 for both the men’s and women’s conferences, based on a variety of factors, including records, strength of schedule, winning percentage, and, in the case of the Division I Men’s Tournament, net rating and RPI.
The ranking lists are then combined to form an overall seed ranking. The top four teams in each region get automatic bids, while the rest of the field is filled with at-large berths. This is where the committee really starts to make some of its most difficult choices.
The committee then forms sub-committees to evaluate the remaining at-large teams. These sub-committees, which are generally comprised of three or four members each, decide whether they want to swap a pair of teams from one quadrant to another. This process is repeated until all eight teams in each of the two regions have been assigned a final ranking. This is the basis for the brackets that are then announced on Selection Sunday. This process is long and complicated, but it is crucial in ensuring that the best teams are invited to participate. It is a testament to the work of the Selection Committee that this process has been successful for so many years.