Program Summary

Using game summary data from the 2022 NCAA Women's Division 1 College Basketball season, teams of high school students will crunch the numbers to rank teams within regions and make game-winning probability predictions.

Participating teams will be provided with a complete regular season of game-level, team-level results (5,300+ games) that include various game summary statistics (e.g., score, FGA, FGM, OREB, DREB, TOV, etc.) to use as the basis of their predictions. 

Success in the competition will be based on the accuracy of the team rankings and game predictions, the soundness of the methods used, and how the team’s methods and findings are described and communicated. 

Note: The 2022 NCAA tournament did occur and results exist. This competition will re-seed the tournament and create new team matchups that DID NOT actually occur. The information from the actual NCAA 2022 tournament should not be used in this competition as it will not be helpful.

The competition will take part in 3 phases that begin on February 3. In order to be eligible to compete, your team must have completed both registration steps (detailed in the Registration Instructions below) by January 31.  

Phase 1: Main Competition*: Basketball tournament team rankings and game-winning percentage predictions, submitted via online platform, SurveyMonkey Apply.

Phase 2: Semifinals (top 25 teams invited to participate): Creation of a short slide deck that describes the team’s methods and findings from Phase 1. Additionally, teams will explore effects and impacts of home-court advantage. Slide deck will be submitted via SurveyMonkey Apply. 

Phase 3: Finals (top 5 teams invited to participate): Presentation of the Phase 2 submission material to a panel of judges during a virtual meeting.

*Data will be released on February 3, 2025 at 9:00AM EST (UTC-05:00).

SurveyMonkey Apply (referred to as Apply) is the platform used for the competition. Most competition activity – including the registration steps noted below – will take place within the Apply platform.

Registration Instructions

Advisors are responsible for registering their student team for the competition. Please note that if this rule is not followed, all involved teams may be disqualified from participating. 

Note that there are 2 steps to a complete registration. Step 1 is to report your team and affiliated school's information. After your application in step 1 has been approved, Step 2 is to add your student team leader as a 'Collaborator' to your application. Please wait until you receive confirmation that your submission from step 1 has been approved by Wharton staff before completing step 2. More information on how to complete step 2 will be provided in the same message notifying you of your team's approval.

For step-by-step instructions for registration, please refer to this webpage and watch the walkthrough tutorial.

Step 1: Due by January 31 at 9:00AM EST (UTC-05:00) to secure a spot in the competition

1. Advisors Create an Apply Account by Clicking the Blue "Register Now" Button: 

   • In order to register your team for the competition, you will need to create an account in Apply using your school email (if you have one).

   • Once you complete this process, you will receive a confirmation email from noreply@mail.smapply.net.

   • Please add noreply@mail.smapply.net to your address book to ensure that this essential email and others that will come throughout the competition will not be blocked.

2. Advisors Register for Competition by Clicking the Blue "Apply" Button and Completing the "Registration" Application Task:

   • You as the advisor must register your team for the competition. We want to stress that students must not register for the competition on their own behalf or on behalf of their team. If this rule is not followed, your team may be disqualified. 

   • Please prepare a group of 3-5 student team members from the same school as the advisor and have the following information prepared in order to complete step 1 of registration:

     • High school name, website, country, postal code 

     • The principal’s full name and their email address

     • Advisor’s full name, school-issued email address and backup email address

     • Student team members' full names, school-issued email addresses, and graduation year*

     • A name for your team

*Each team requires a Student Team Leader. This student will be responsible for submitting the team's work for each phase in Apply. This student will need to create an Apply account and must be age 16 or older in order to comply with SurveyMonkey Apply policy.

Step 2: Please wait until your application from step 1 has been approved before completing this next step, but be sure to complete no later than February 3 at 9:00AM EST (UTC-05:00) to start the competition on time

• Advisors Add the Student Team Leader as a Collaborator by Clicking the "Add collaborator" Button from their Dashboard:  

  • The Advisor must invite the student team leader as a ‘collaborator’ on the team’s application in Apply and grant them edit/view access.

  • Further instructions on how to add a collaborator and rules regarding collaborators will become available after your team has been approved.

PLEASE NOTE:

• All steps above must be completed in order to start the competition on February 3. Please refer to this webpage for step-by-step instructions for registration.

• Applications are set up for each team, not each student. 

• Students can only compete on one team.

• All students must attend the same school.

• The advisor and the student team leader must both have Apply accounts, as they provide access to the team application. These accounts are generated by following the instructions provided above, and confirmed via the email noted above: noreply@mail.smapply.net

Questions?

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Visit the competition website for more information.