Maintaining the Madness: Evaluating Tournament Mechanisms for Optimal Entertainment and Fairness through March Madness

Abstract

The postseason is the most important part of any sports season, with the best teams competing to be declared champions. Different sports leagues crown champions through different mechanisms, but most use some form of tournament. This paper examines six different tournament mechanisms by simulating the 2019 Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament (March Madness) over 10,000 times under each mechanism. From these simulations, I determine whether there is a better alternative to the current tournament format. As expected, the different tournament mechanisms provide different advantages and disadvantages. The current status quo creates an entertaining tournament with the potential for early upsets. The best alternative, reseeding each round, provides more entertaining late-round games while diminishing the chaos of the early rounds. Overall, the current format for March Madness works well and is likely here to stay, but reseeding is a strong alternative that could be considered in the future.