Incentives
by Ken Pomeroy on Monday, February 21, 2011
Included in discussion of the media mock-bracket exercise held by the NCAA last week has been the usual chatter about using more advanced methods in the selection room. I went on record last season with my thoughts on the process – those remain unchanged, so no need to repeat them here.
My point today is that it’s foolish to expect the committee to readily adopt a new methodology. When one looks at how tempo-free stats have been accepted by various groups involved in the game (coaches, fans, media, and the committee), there’s a connection between those that embraced it first and their incentive to do so. Let’s look at each group individually.
1) Coaches. Even before there were web sites displaying this information, a handful of coaching staffs had their own ways to calculate things like offensive and defensive efficiency. And it figures, since they have the most…