A Glossary of Bracketology Terms

Selection & Field Composition

At-Large Bid — A tournament spot awarded by the committee to a team that didn't win its conference, based on its overall resume. Most of the field's last 30-40 spots are at-large bids, and almost all of the genuine debate in bracketology happens around who gets the last few.

Automatic Qualifier (AQ) — A tournament spot earned by winning a conference championship, regardless of regular-season resume. Every Division I conference gets exactly one AQ, which is why a team with a mediocre overall record can still make the field by winning its conference tournament.

Bubble — The group of teams whose tournament case is genuinely uncertain, sitting right around the cut line between making the field and missing it. "On the bubble" means a team's resume could plausibly go either way depending on results in the season's final week or two.

Field of 76 — The tournament's current format (effective 2027), expanded from the long-standing 68-team field. The expansion mostly affects the bottom of the bracket — Opening Round play-in games now happen across more seed lines than the old First Four did.

Selection Sunday — The day the committee announces the full field and seeding, typically the Sunday after conference championship week. This is the moment bracketology predictions get checked against reality — and when you'd bring a finished bracket to the Bracket Performance Calculator to score it.

Resume Metrics

NET Ranking (NCAA Evaluation Tool) — The NCAA's official sorting metric for tournament selection and seeding, replacing the old RPI system. It blends scoring margin, strength of schedule, and game results into a single composite ranking, refreshed daily. Bracket Studio pulls live NET data from Warren Nolan so it's always current with what the actual committee is seeing.

Quad Records — A team's win-loss record split into four tiers (Quad 1 through Quad 4) based on opponent NET ranking and game location, since a true road win is worth more than a home win against the same opponent. Quad 1 is the toughest tier (best opponents, often on the road); Quad 4 is the easiest. The committee weighs a team's best Quad 1/2 wins and worst Quad 3/4 losses heavily when two resumes are close.

Nitty Gritty Report — Warren Nolan's name for the full team-sheet breakdown — NET, quad records, strength of schedule, and the other granular resume data the committee actually reviews team by team. "The Nitty Gritty" is shorthand bracketologists use for this whole layer of data, as opposed to a simple win-loss record or poll ranking.

Strength of Schedule (SOS) — A measure of how difficult a team's full slate of opponents has been, factored into NET and considered separately when the committee evaluates a team's body of work.

Seeding

S-Curve — The committee's true overall ranking of all 76 (or formerly 68) tournament teams, used to assign seed lines and then "snake" teams into regions so the bracket stays balanced — the 1-overall seed and the weakest 16-seed are on the curve's opposite ends, with everyone else sorted in between.

Seed Line — A team's numbered slot (1 through 16) within its region, indicating the committee's view of its overall strength. Lower numbers are stronger; a 1-seed is a top-four overall team, a 16-seed is the weakest team to make the field.

Opening Round / Play-In Games — Games played before the traditional Round of 64 to trim an expanded seed line down to size. In the 76-team format, lines 10 through 16 can hold more than four teams, and the overflow plays its way into the main bracket through an Opening Round game on that line.

Bubble-Tracking Tiers

First Four Out — The four teams the committee considered most seriously but ultimately left out of the field — the very top of the "missed it" group, often separated from the last team in by a single results swing.

Next Four Out — The next tier of teams below First Four Out: still part of the real conversation, but with a clearly weaker case than the First Four Out group.

Also Considered — A wider band of teams that got a real look from the committee but whose case was farther from the cut line than either "Four Out" tier. These are bubble-ranking tiers, not tournament rounds — don't confuse "First Four Out" (missed the field) with the tournament's actual "First Four" play-in games (made the field, just barely).

Scoring a Finished Bracket

Paymon Scoring System — The scoring method behind the Bracket Performance Calculator. It grades each team in your bracket on how close your predicted seed was to the seed the committee actually assigned: 6 points for an exact match, 4 for within one seed line, 3 for correctly including the team anywhere in the field, and 0 if you left a tournament team out entirely.

Bracket Performance Calculator — The Round Robin's tool for scoring a finished Bracket Studio prediction against the real announced field, using the Paymon Scoring System. See the how-it-works guide for the full scoring breakdown.