@the-gipper said:

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.

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

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.

@mld-woody said:

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.

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

@mld-woody said:

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.)

@jrb12711 said:

8. Butler Bulldogs

10. John Calipari

Check on both

@the-gipper said:

18 Notre Dame

93 Michigan

FAKE!

pfff Forbes...

10. John Calipari

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

@browns149 said:

2. odds of picking a perfect bracket

6 South Carolina

Check on both.

Here is that list:

Army:

Heismans: Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, Pete Dawkins

Presidents: US Grant, Eisenhower

Michigan:

Heismans: Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard, Charles Woodson

Presidents: Geral Ford

Navy:

Heismans: Joe Bellino, Roger Staubach

Presidents: Jimmy Carter

Princeton:

Heismans: Dick Kazmaier

Presidents: Madison, Wilson, Kennedy(transferred)

Stanford:

Heismans: Jim Plunkett

Presidents: Hoover, Kennedy(Business School)

Yale:

Heismans: Clint Frank, Larry Kelly

Presidents: Taft, Bush 41, Bush 43, Clinton (Law), Ford (Law)

Ford, while not actually drafted by the NFL was given contract offers from both the Packers and the Lions, but instead chose to go to law school at Yale.

6 South Carolina

@mld-woody said:

President of the United States

Correctamundo. I thought that one would be difficult, but you are right. Those are the schools in the tournament this year that were also attended by a US President.

Can you list the schools that have a President AND a Heisman winner?

I will, in a bit. Presidential Trivia is also something I enjoy...but rarely delve into here a it is not usually sports related.

@roach said:

One of those schools is easy. CSU made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 1986. They beat Knight's Indiana team and St. Josephs. The lost to Navy by one point. ONE POINT TO MAKE IT TO THE ELITE EIGHT. David Robinson hit the key winning bucket right at the end of the game. That tournament was one of the most exciting sports stories in this town in the last 25 years.

Agree....and David Robinson in my opinion pushed off, committing an offensive foul in order to get that winning bucket. But of course it wasn't called.

While i didn't attend CSU, (I did for Law school) Mama Roach and i bought season tickets last year and renewed them this year. i do hope that more basketball fans discover this fine program that we have right here. Seats are great and affordable, The Wolstein Center is easy to get to. Concessions are cheap and the atmosphere is family friendly. PLUS the Horizon League plays some darn good basketball. You only need to look at Butler's sucess to demonstrate the level of competition. Also, don't forget that CSU beat Vandebilt this year when they were ranked #5. The recruiting reach is national and international.

Despite a heart-breaking finish this year (losing 6 of the final 8), they will play Stanford in the first round of the NIT. Go Vikings!

There are in fact 3 pretty darn good "Mid-Majors" in NEOhio. CSU, Akron (my other alma mater...disappointing loss to OU to get into the tournament), and Kent State.

Oh, yea: Check on CSU

Virginia

Davidson

Harvard

Cincinnati

Michigan

Georgetown

North Carolina

President of the United States

Can you list the schools that have a President AND a Heisman winner?

@the-gipper said:

7. What are the only 2 schools in NCAA tournament history to be a 14 seed or lower to make the Sweet 16?

One of those schools is easy. CSU made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 1986. They beat Knight's Indiana team and St. Josephs. The lost to Navy by one point. ONE POINT TO MAKE IT TO THE ELITE EIGHT. David Robinson hit the key winning bucket right at the end of the game. That tournament was one of the most exciting sports stories in this town in the last 25 years.

While i didn't attend CSU, Mama Roach and i bought season tickets last year and renewed them this year. i do hope that more basketball fans discover this fine program that we have right here. Seats are great and affordable, The Wolstein Center is easy to get to. Concessions are cheap and the atmosphere is family friendly. PLUS the Horizon League plays some darn good basketball. You only need to look at Butler's sucess to demonstrate the level of competition. Also, don't forget that CSU beat Vandebilt this year when they were ranked #5. The recruiting reach is national and international.

Despite a heart-breaking finish this year (losing 6 of the final 8), they will play Stanford in the first round of the NIT. Go Vikings!