Ncaa March Madness Trivia
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This is unrelated to the trivia, but I thought I would post this bit of esoterica. Here is the academic ranking of all 68 teams that are in this year's NCAA tournament per Forbes Magazine's ranking of best colleges academic in America. (note, more than half the schools Forbes ranks are small, liberal arts type colleges that mostly compete in Div. III)
On the left is their Forbe's Best College rank followed by the tournament school:
6 Harvard
18 Notre Dame
22 Duke
46 Virginia
47 Georgetown
53 Vanderbilt
61 Davidson
70 California
74 North Carolina
93 Michigan
117 Loyola, MD
124 Lehigh
137 Florida
171 Creighton
172 St. Marys Calif.
184 Xavier
185 Texas
193 Florida State
207 Syracuse
210 Connecticut
217 Colorado
224 Indiana
229 BYU
232 Marquette
247 Vermont
272 Gonzaga
276 Baylor
279 NC State
283 Ohio State
289 Long Beach St.
311 Purdue
316 Wisconsin
326 St. Louis
329 Colorado St.
349 Michigan St.
353 Ohio U.
369 Alabama
386 Missouri
403 West Virginia
406 Montana
427 Kentucky
428 Kansas
435 New Mexico St.
440 Iona
446 Kansas St.
458 UNC Asheville
465 New Mexico
478 S. Dakota St.
496 Temple
514 Iowa St.
518 Murray St.
521 Cincinnati
523 Belmont
525 San Diego St.
547 Southern Miss.
561 South Florida
567 Virginia Commonwealth
579 Louisville
591 Western Kentucky
606 UNLV
612 Lamar
615 Wichita St.
639 Memphis
Schools not rated in the Top 650:
Mississippi Valley St.
LIU Brooklyn
Norfolk St.
St. Bonaventure
Detroit
Ja.brill Peppers - Cleveland Brown OldBrownsFan, on 02 Jun 2017 - 5:09PM said: "No you are not the work of the devil but you are deceived by the devil." Who's got it better than us? Nooooobody! -
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FAKE!
pfff Forbes...
That is pretty much in line also with the way US News and World Report ranks them too.
They rank differently by separating the National Universities from the Liberal Arts Colleges and regional univs.
They have Notre Dame 19th and Michigan 28 among National Universities.
I do note that Forbes has Notre Dame ranked higher than most of the Ivy League schools, while US News has all the Ivies ranked above Notre Dame. (Never fear, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke and Vanderbilt rank above them both in both polls.)
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And don't feel bad, both my alma Maters got knocked out of the NIT last night...Akron and CSU got beat by Northwestern and Stanford respectively.
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Yeah, I know the ratings are just a way for places like US News to make money. There has to be some fluctuation each year to stay interesting.
Its all a rating game all about how well you play to their criteria. Some schools purposely get as many kids to apply as they can so they can reject more and lower their acceptance rate. Where as Michigan just recently switched to the Common App and is just now starting to see the effects (from my year to the next year the rate dropped like 9%)
Its kinda hard to distinguish between schools in the same tier. And even then, I would think one would care more about their programs ranking then the entire schools
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Yeah, I know the ratings are just a way for places like US News to make money. There has to be some fluctuation each year to stay interesting.
Its all a rating game all about how well you play to their criteria. Some schools purposely get as many kids to apply as they can so they can reject more and lower their acceptance rate. Where as Michigan just recently switched to the Common App and is just now starting to see the effects (from my year to the next year the rate dropped like 9%)
Its kinda hard to distinguish between schools in the same tier. And even then, I would think one would care more about their programs ranking then the entire schools
Yeah, I know the ratings are just a way for places like US News to make money. There has to be some fluctuation each year to stay interesting.
Its all a rating game all about how well you play to their criteria. Some schools purposely get as many kids to apply as they can so they can reject more and lower their acceptance rate. Where as Michigan just recently switched to the Common App and is just now starting to see the effects (from my year to the next year the rate dropped like 9%)
Its kinda hard to distinguish between schools in the same tier. And even then, I would think one would care more about their programs ranking then the entire schools
Some schools opt out altogether from these rankings systems requests for data. Where my son goes to school the School President said that the Forbes survey questionnaire was like filling out a survey from a stay at Howard Johnsons, so they refused to take part in the survey. As a result the ranking system dropped their ranking down. His school was in the Top 25 in the nation, but now they put it in the Top 40. They couldn't justify any more than that because the school is that good.
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Here is the US News and World Report rankings of all NCAA Tournament teams.
The thing here is that US News has a divided ranking system. Where Forbes ranks all schools in one category, US News has "National Universities", Liberal Arts Colleges, and "Regional Universities which they divide between Northeast, Midwest, South, West. US News also only ranks like the top 200 in each category. They then assign other schools just to a tier level with no actuall rank:
National University rank for NCAA schools:
1 Harvard
10 Duke
17 Vanderbilt
19 Notre Dame
21 California
22 Georgetown
25 Virginia
28 Michigan
29 North Carolina
38 Lehigh
42 Wisconsin
45 Texas
55 Ohio St.
58 UConn
59 Florida
62 Purdue
63 Syracuse
71 BYU
72 Michigan St.
75 Baylor
76 Indiana
77 Alabama
82 Marquette
83 Vermont
90 St. Louis
91 Missouri
94 Colorado
97 Iowa St.
101 Florida St.
102 NC St.
103 Kansas
124 Ohio
125 Kentucky
128 Colorado St
132 Temple
143 Kansas St.
144 Cincinnati
164 San Diego St.
165 Louisville
166 West Virginia
170 VCU
181 New Mexico
194 S. Dakota St.
195 Montana
Tier 2 schools, National Universites, no order
Wichita St.
New Mexico St.
UNLV
Memphis
Southern Mississippi
Lamar
Regional Universities North:
3 Loyal MD
32 St. Bonaventure
30 Iona
110 LIU Brooklyn
Regional Universities South:
7 Belmont
25 Murray St.
36 Western KY.
Tier 2 Mississippi Valley St.
Tier 2 Norfolk St.
Regional Universities Midwest:
1 Creighton
4 Xavier
23 Detroit Mercy
Regional Universities West:
3 Gonazaga
12 St. Mary's
26 Long Beach St.
Liberal Arts Colleges:
11 Davidson
165 UNC Asheville
One thing I don't get about US News method. Why on earth do they think that the likes of Xavier/Creighton/Gonzaga/Iona etc. are only "regional schools" that may not have a national base, where the likes of Lamar, Lehigh, S. Dakota St. are "national" in scope? No clue.
Also, those two Liberal Arts schools, in reality, should probably not be competing in Division I sports.
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Trivia Recap. I know we have gotten off track a bit on this. So here is an interim status report. Here are the questions that still need answered:
3. What city hosted first NCAA tourney?
4. What city has hosted the most tourneys?
5. Only school to play Final Four game on its home floor?
7. Second team (besides CSU) to go to Sweet 16 as a 14 seed?
9. Years and schools where both National title game participants failed to make the tourney the following year?
11. School that has gone to NCAA tourney the most times with no Final Four appearances?
12. The six states sending 5 or more different schools to the Final Four?
Bonus. A. Three schools from Power Conferences that have never won an NCAA tourney game. Hint: after last night, this number is down to two.
B. Only Division I school from Ohio to never make the NCAA Tourney
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I know this is not about football, but once in a while I can diverge, can't I?
Here is some March Madness Trivia:
1. Outside the Box question: What does this list of specific schools that made this years tournament have in common? Hint: it has nothing to do with sports...other than the fact that they are all in the tournament. Another common thread binds them:
Virginia
Davidson
Harvard
Cincinnati
Michigan
Georgetown
North Carolina
2. More outside the box: Mathematics: What does the following ratio represent: 147,570,000,000,000,000,000:1
3. What city host the very first Final Four in 1939?
4. What city has hosted the most number of Final Fours, since 1939?
5. Name the only college to ever play a Final Four game on its home court. (with what result?)
6. What state has been banned from hosting NCAA Tournament games?
7. What are the only 2 schools in NCAA tournament history to be a 14 seed or lower to make the Sweet 16?
8. What is the only school in NCAA tournament history to make the Final Four in consecutive seasons without being either a #1 or a #2 seed either years.
9. There have been only 2 occasions in history where both teams that played in the national title game failed to make the NCAA Tournament the following season. Name the years and teams.
10. Who has taken 3 different colleges to the Final Four, only to have the trips for two of the schools vacated by the NCAA for infractions?
11. What school has made the most appearances in the NCAA tournament without ever making it to the Final Four?
12. Six states have had 5 or more different colleges make Final Four appearances. Name the 6 states.
Bonus: A. There are 3 schools currently members of the so called "Big 6" Power conferences (ACC/SEC/Big East/Big10/Big12/Pac12) that have never won an NCAA Tournament games.
Name the 3 schools.
B. There is one Division 1 program located in the State of Ohio that has never made an NCAA Tournament appearance. What school is that?
I know this is not about football, but once in a while I can diverge, can't I?
Here is some March Madness Trivia:
Answers
1. Outside the Box question: What does this list of specific schools that made this years tournament have in common? Hint: it has nothing to do with sports...other than the fact that they are all in the tournament. Another common thread binds them:
Virginia Wilson
Davidson Wilson
Harvard 8 different Prezes
Cincinnati Taft
Michigan Ford
Georgetown Clinton
North Carolina Polk
These are tournament teams that at one point in time or another were attended by US Presidents.
2. More outside the box: Mathematics: What does the following ratio represent: 147,570,000,000,000,000,000:1
Yes, these are the odds against picking a perfect bracket
3. What city host the very first Final Four in 1939?
Evanston, Illinois
4. What city has hosted the most number of Final Fours, since 1939?
Kansas City
5. Name the only college to ever play a Final Four game on its home court. (with what result?)
Louisville played the Final Four on its home court of Freedom Hall in 1959. They lost to Cal.
6. What state has been banned from hosting NCAA Tournament games?
South Carolina for having the Confederate Flag flying over it State Capitol, thus openly declaring that it endorses racism.
7. What are the only 2 schools in NCAA tournament history to be a 14 seed or lower to make the Sweet 16?
Cleveland State University 1986 and Chattanooga 1997
8. What is the only school in NCAA tournament history to make the Final Four in consecutive seasons without being either a #1 or a #2 seed either years.
Butler in 2010 and 2011
9. There have been only 2 occasions in history where both teams that played in the national title game failed to make the NCAA Tournament the following season. Name the years and teams.
First is the teams that played in the 2007 NCAA title game: Florida and Ohio State. Neither made the Big Dance the following year, though OSU did win the NIT.
Then it is the teams that played in the 1979 title game: Michigan State and Indiana State. Neither were invited the next year. Of course Indiana State lost Larry Bird and Michigan St. lost Magic Johnson. No wonder there was a dropoff.
10. Who has taken 3 different colleges to the Final Four, only to have the trips for two of the schools vacated by the NCAA for infractions?
Calipari....took UMass and because Marcus Camby hired an agent during the season they had their Final Four trip vacated. Then he took Memphis but had that Final Four Trip vacated because Derrick Rose was found to have cheated either on some tests or his SAT or something like that. It would surprise me if something like that happens again at KY
11. What school has made the most appearances in the NCAA tournament without ever making it to the Final Four?
BYU has made 26 appearance but no Final Fours. Second is Missouri with 24 trips. Third is Xavier with 22.
12. Six states have had 5 or more different colleges make Final Four appearances. Name the 6 states.
Pennsylvania 8: Penn, Penn St., Pitt, Duquesne, LaSalle, St. Joseph, Villanova, Temple
California 6: UCLA, USC, Cal, STanford, Santa Clara, Univ. of San Francisco
North Carolina 5: UNC, Duke, UNC Charlotte, Wake Forest, NC State
Texas 5: Texas, Baylor, SMU, UTEP, Houston
New York 5: CCNY, NYU, St. John, Syracuse, St. Bonaventure
Indiana 5: Indiana, Indiana St., Purdue, Butler, Notre Dame
(Ohio has only had 3 schools: OHio St. Cincinnati, Dayton)
Bonus: A. There are 3 schools currently members of the so called "Big 6" Power conferences (ACC/SEC/Big East/Big10/Big12/Pac12) that have never won an NCAA Tournament games.
Name the 3 schools.
Actually, after the other night, there are now only 2. When written, South Florida of the Big East had never won a tournament game. Now they have.
The other two are: Nebraska who is 0-6 in the NCAA tournament. And Northwestern who is 0-0, having never appeared.
B. There is one Division 1 program located in the State of Ohio that has never made an NCAA Tournament appearance. What school is that?
Youngstown ST.
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