March Madness upsets don't start when the games begin.
In fact, much of the anger and anxiety for some programs and fans begins several weeks before the tournament's 68-team field is announced. That's the nature of the beast with a 31-game regular season with 364 Division-I men's basketball programs competing for limited spots in the NCAA Tournament.
Perceived snubs are inevitable. Anger over where a team is seeded is expected. If the selection committee uses advanced metrics, fans will scream about the "eye test." However, if the eye test is used, fans will scream about the metrics.
The committee uses a mixture of both to select the full field for the 68-team field. The seven metrics used by the committee are a combination of predictive metrics and results-based.
The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), KenPom, ESPN's BPI and the Torvik rankings are the predictive rankings that measure a team's strength on its offensive and defensive efficiency, adjusting for opponents and location.
