The Eighth Man

Bracket

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March Madness is a magical time of the year. It’s full of Cinderella stories, shining moments and, most importantly, brackets. While the true March Madness bracket determines which college program is the best in the country at basketball, we at The Eighth Man thought it’d be interesting to determine which quidditch college program is the most storied, well-rounded, important program of all time. We took 40 of the sport’s proudest programs and dispersed them into four regions, with the goal of whittling it all the way down to one. And, through a combination of the input and discussion of the community, we intend to do just that.

The Bracket
The bracket was seeded using team’s peak end-of-season rating in The Eighth Man’s Elo rankings. For example, because the University of Texas has the highest season-ending Elo ranking of any college program ever, they were ranked No. 1. Then, seed lines were created—tiny, four-team pots, one for each seed—and the four regions were drawn randomly from those pots to form the bracket:

The Criterion
When comparing two teams in a matchup with one another, entire college programsincluding B-teams and off-field leadershipshould be evaluated based on their performance since the beginning of the World Cup VI season (2012-13) in the following areas:

  1. On-Field Performance: How has the team faired at World Cups and US Quidditch Cups? How about regional championships? Have they been a consistent presence at the top of their region or an occasional one? Has the team developed players that have earned individual accolades?
  2. Off-Field Performance: Has the program consistently developed referees that are actively volunteering? How about snitches? Does the program host tournaments and, if so, how large and how relevant? Has it contributed numerous volunteers to quidditch organizations?
  3. Graduate Performance: Has the program had graduates that have made major contributions in the sport after graduation? Has it developed players that went on to star for a community or MLQ team or make Team USA? Have its graduates taken up major leadership positions in quidditch organizations?

Votes for a matchup will be tabulated as follows:

  1. Voting Percentages of The Eighth Man Staff will make up 60 percent of the overall vote
  2. Voting Percentages of the quidditch community will make up 40 percent of the overall vote

The Schedule
Play-In Round: March 10-12
Round of 32, Longhorn and Aggie Regions: March 13-15
Round of 32, Bobcat and Terrapin Regions: March 16-18
Round of 16: March 19-21
Round of 8: March 22-24
Round of 4: March 25-27
Finals: March 30-April 1

Previous Round Recaps
Play-In Round by Ethan Sturm
Round of 32, Longhorn and Aggie Regions by Ethan Sturm
Round of 32, Bobcat and Terrapin Regions by Ethan
Sturm
Sweet 16 by Ethan Sturm and Kerri Donnelly
Elite Eight by Ethan Sturm
The Finalists by Raghuveer Achukola and Erin Mallory (Guest Writers)

Current Round Voting