NCAA Tournament "Dance Card"
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Current Ranking
Description
Performance
Authors
Media Attention
Past Rankings
Acknowledgements

NCAA Tournament "Dance Card"

Performance

The original version of the Dance Card missed on more than three spots in only two seasons (2007 and 2008). Over the 15-year period from 1994 through 2008, the original Dance Card correctly predicted 476 of the 512 available at-large Tournament slots (or 93%).

Over the 9-year period (2000 through 2008) for which the original Dance Card was used since its initial development in 1999, it correctly predicted 284 out of the 307 available at-large slots (92.5%). The formula's best years were in 2001 and in 2005, when it correctly predicted 33 of the 34 available at-large slots (or 97% accuracy).

The version of the Dance Card being used to obtain the current ranking correctly predicted 35 of the 37 available at-large slots in 2012, 34 of the 37 available at-large slots in 2011, 33 of the 34 available at-large slots in 2010, and 32 of the 34 at-large slots in 2009, for an overall accuracy of 94.4% (134 out of 142) for these three years. Over the 10 years of data (1999 through 2008) on which its development was based, it would have correctly predicted 329 of the 341 available at-large Tournament slots, or 96.5% accuracy (i.e., it would have averaged just over one at-large slot missed per year).

The Dance Card can only be as accurate as the Selection Committees are consistent; it is an estimate of the Selection Committees' (not the authors') decision criteria. The high level of accuracy and consistency of the model is strong evidence that the Selection Committees (which differ in composition each year) are actually quite consistent from year to year.




B. Jay Coleman, Ph.D.
Richard deR. Kip Professor of Operations Management & Quantitative Methods
Department of Management | Coggin College of Business | University of North Florida | Jacksonville, FL 32224
jcoleman@unf.edu

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