Working the lobby: let's go to the action behind the scenes as conference honchos turn hucksters, peddling their teams to the NCAA selection committee

Sporting News, The, March 15, 2004 by Mike DeCourcy

A year's worth of exhaustive bracketology research still hasn't produced a satisfactory answer to the question that has vexed fans, analysts land even former selection committee members since the 2003 NCAA Tournament field was revealed: Auburn?

Cliff Ellis' team eventually proved its tournament worth by reaching the Sweet 16 after beating Saint Joseph's--the last team to do so--and No. 2 seed Wake Forest before losing by one to Syracuse, the eventual champion. But little about the Tigers' season suggested they would be invited. They were 0-6 against top 25 opponents. They lost to Western Michigan, which finished fifth in the Mid-American Conference. They lost by 20 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

In the interest of solving this mystery and moving on to the 2004 tournament, let's blame it all on DeWayne Peevy, the SEC's associate director of media relations for men's basketball. An important part of his job is compiling information in support of his league's NCAA Tournament candidates and presenting it to the committee. So it's his fault.

"I'd love to say it was," Peevy says. "If you talk to coach Ellis, he might tell you that. On championship Sunday, I was leaving New Orleans after our tournament was over and coming back to Birmingham. He called on the cell and asked, 'Are we in?' And I said, 'Coach, I got you in.'"

One of the more covert aspects of the NCAA Tournament selection process is the work done by conference offices to advocate the candidacy of their teams. Nobody likes to use the word "lobbying." Fair or not, this connotes the use of expensive dinners, extravagant gifts and junkets to manipulate the political process. What the conferences primarily do with members of the selection committee is give them more to read.

The committee members insist the selections and seedings are based mostly on data and their own impressions as they watch teams play. The committee simplifies this process by assigning each member several conferences to monitor during the season. Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, for instance, was assigned to the Mountain West this season, so he speaks with that conference's commissioner, Craig Thompson, several times each month to get updates on tournament-worthy candidates. As a former selection chair, Thompson knows not to insult the committee's intelligence. "I would tell the commissioners, 'Don't send in stuff about a team that's 16-13 and happened to beat N.C. State in December'" Thompson says. "That team's not going to get in." So each league carefully draws the line between those it actively promotes and those it pushes for the NIT.

Just before selection weekend, the leagues present organized material that champions the strength of their teams. A lot of this information can be found on a Ratings Percentage Index breakdown page: overall record, conference record, record against various levels of RPI teams, etc. But there also is information about injuries and suspensions that might have affected results. The committee often talks about how teams will be given breaks if injuries affected results--so long as those players are back competing effectively.

The SEC's Peevy estimates he spends two to three hours of each work day on this project as March approaches. When Thompson was on the committee, he would arrive at the hotel where the committee met and be met by faxes and FedEx packages containing information that Thompson says declared, "Hey, don't forget us"

Once those meetings begin, conversations between the leagues and the committee are less frequent. Committee members are sequestered in their Indianapolis hotel; they can be reached by telephone only with a secret access code. They also can make calls to gain information. Thompson fielded multiple calls last March from Bob Bowlsby, the committee member assigned to the Mountain West, to discuss appropriate seeding for at-large entrants Utah and BYU.

Ultimately, the conferences do this work because they're passionate about it and their members are, effectively, paying them to do it. Coaches appreciate knowing somebody is out there fighting for their cause. But who knows whether it works? Without being lobbied, bracket analysts Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com and Joe Lunardi of ESPN.com routinely come close to matching the committee's picks. They've come to understand what numbers the committee values.

Listening to those who have done this work, you find their stories often are about teams that didn't get into the field. Former Conference USA associate commissioner Brian Teter, who now works in media relations for the Cincinnati athletic department, remembers lobbying "like crazy" to get Tulane selected in 1996, the league's first season.

At the Conference USA Tournament, however, Tulane undermined his argument by stinking up its quarterfinal game against Louisville.

After that, whenever Teter would encounter committee members at various functions, "I'd just sell them on the league, how good the league was;' Teter says. "I couldn't snow these guys. But you've got to sell it and push the reasons why a team would be a good choice."