The Proper Use of Predictive Analytics (and Work Time): Picking the NCAA Tournament Field

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is considered one of the leading wastes of time in American business, so it should come as no surprise that your friendly blogger would search high and low to find a way to mix his love of college hoops with a little thing his bosses like to call “work.”

It seems a trio of college professors has been employing predictive analytics to predict the at-large teams that make up the NCAA tournament for the last 20 years. Using the analytics software from SAS, the professors have enjoyed a 94 percent success rate in putting together what they call their Dance Card. Two years ago, the professors were correct on 33 of the 34 at large bids (the rest of the field is made up of teams that earn guaranteed bids through their league championship tournaments.