Book Smarts

Tomorrow we find out who will represent the Ivy League in the NCAA tournament. Harvard and Princeton will have a one-game playoff at Yale University, of all places. According to Joe Lunardi of ESPN, the teams are playing for a No. 13 seed. That's right - Harvard and Princeton, the No. 1 and No. 2 national universities in US News World and Report's 2011 rankings, are fighting for a double-digit seed in the big dance. I know the NCAA tournament selection committee does not consider graduation and retention rates of colleges when determining where to place teams, nor does it evaluate student selectivity (standard SAT scores for Harvard and Princeton freshmen usually range from 1390-1580).

But how would the brackets look if they were based on academic rankings? Based on U.S. World News and Report's findings, out of the teams heading to the tournament, here's who would capture No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds. This, of course, is an alternate universe where educational excellence is valued over athletics (and the sports entertainment industry and merchandising and television licensing). And I'm not saying I want to see a group of guys from MIT play a pick-up game. I just thought it would be interesting to see the brackets re-organized in this fashion. Next to each university is its overall score in USNW&R.

East Region - No. 1: Harvard/Princeton (100)

Southwest Region - No. 1: Notre Dame (78)

Southeast Region - No. 1: Duke (90)

West Region - No. 1: Vanderbilt (80)

East Region - No. 2: Georgetown (74)

Southwest Region - No. 2: Michigan (71)

Southeast Region - No. 2: North Carolina (70)

West Region - No. 2: UCLA (73)

East Region - No. 3: Boston College (63)

Southwest Region - No. 3: Illinois (61)

Southeast Region - No. 3: Wisconsin (61)

West Region - No. 3: Washington (59)

East Region - No. 4: Pittsburgh (52)

Southwest Region - No. 4: Texas (57)

Southeast Region - No. 4: Florida (57)

West Region - No. 4: Ohio State (53)

So it's not surprising that all of the No. 1 seeds are private universities, in this little experiment. However, there are a ton of great state schools. In closing, I would really like to see a Johns Hopkins get a Division I men's basketball team, despite a couple of weak showings against Swarthmore and Ursinus this year.