Duke Returns to Top Spot and is Favorite College Basketball Team Again

Business Wire, March 26, 2008

UNC May be Number One Seed Overall in NCAA Tourney, but It Drops to Second on the Favorite Team List

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- As March Madness heads into the Sweet Sixteen, Duke may be out of the NCAA tournament, but it has returned to the number one position on the annual list of favorite college basketball teams, while the University of North Carolina (UNC) drops to No. 2. Moving up five spots, from tied for No. 8 to No. 3 is Indiana.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll conducted online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive([R]) among a nationwide sample of 2,513 U.S. adults, 611 of whom follow college basketball.

Rounding out the top five favorite teams are the Bruins of UCLA (No. 4) and Iowa (no. 5), who are making their first appearance in the top ten. The remaining teams on the top 10 list are Georgetown (tied for No. 6), Tennessee (tied for No. 6), Kansas (tied for No. 6), Kentucky (tied for No. 9) and Wisconsin (tied for No. 9).

Besides Iowa, two other teams are making their debut on the list - Tennessee and Wisconsin. Kansas returns to the list, last having been in 2003. Four teams have dropped out of the top 10 this year: Ohio State, Texas, Michigan, and Syracuse.

Looking at the Sweet Sixteen, half of the top ten list (UNC, UCLA, Tennessee, Kansas, and Wisconsin) are playing this weekend. And, four of the remaining five did play this past weekend with Iowa the only team to be on the top ten and not in the NCAA tournament. Also, three of the four number one seeds are also on the top ten - UNC, Kansas, and UCLA - with only Memphis not making the list.

Women's College Basketball

College basketball followers were also asked what their favorite women's team is, and for the fifth year in a row, the top two teams are Tennessee (No. 1) and Connecticut (No. 2), with Iowa returning to the list in third place. Three teams are tied for No. 4 this year; Maryland (up from No. 5), Stanford (making a return to the list) and Duke (up from tied for No. 7).

This year, four teams dropped off the list meaning four new ones emerged. Besides Iowa and Stanford, also returning to the list this year is Kentucky (No. 10) while Indiana (tied for No. 8) in on the list for the first time. Off the list are Ohio State, Michigan, Baylor, and Penn State.

Seven schools, Duke, UNC, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, have teams on both the men's and women's top 10 list.

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Methodology

The Harris Poll([R]) was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over), of whom 611 follow college basketball. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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About Harris Interactive

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Harris Interactive Inc. 3/08