With the Super Bowl in the rearview window and the calendar about to turn to March, the attention of the sports world is about to be completely focused on college basketball and the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament (March Madness). Every year, this 68-team tournament captures the attention of people across the country, whether they are diehard fans or non-sports fans who are simply participating in the office pool.

Not only does the NCAA Basketball Tournament serve as fodder around the water cooler, with billions of dollars of productivity lost in the American workplace every year, not only in watching the games but also in the various (sometimes unconventional) methods people use to pick the winners in their bracket. You may have seen people choose winners based on which team’s mascot would win in a fight, by choosing the schools with the superior academics, or even by choosing winners based on who has the most attractive head coach (shout out to my alma mater, University of Virginia, that AOL astutely points out would win in this last scenario).

So with the Selection Committee currently watching the last few games of the regular season as teams try to bolster their chances of making the NCAA Basketball Tournament, I thought I’d take a look at how March Madness would look if the field was selected based on each school’s efforts towards sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmentalism– call it the 2018 Green March Madness Tournament!

This article will take all eligible NCAA schools and create the field of 68 for a tournament, but playing it out won’t be all that interesting because the top seeds will obviously ‘win’ each match up until the Final Four. So keep reading to see the 68 teams that make the tournament and find out which top seed comes out on top– but stay tuned once the NCAA puts out the actual bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament because I’ll do a follow-up article and revisit this concept to see who would win each of those real-life match ups based on who rated higher on sustainability! (Update the 2018 Tournament field has been set in real life, so see how that tournament would play out with these sustainability metrics in this new post)







Metrics used

After extensive research, I found three different measurements and rankings that look at the efforts of colleges and universities across the United States to incorporate sustainable practices, energy-saving measures, and environmentally-friendly practices. The latest version of the data for these measures, which are explained in detail below, were pulled to serve as the metrics of who would participate in the 2018 Green March Madness Tournament.

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) uses its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) to measure how successfully institutions have been performing in sustainability matters. The mission statement of STARS details how it “is intended to engage and recognize the full spectrum of colleges and universities- from community colleges to research universities- and encompasses long-term sustainability goals for already high-achieving institutions as well as entry points of recognition for institutions that are taking first steps towards sustainability.”

STARS is completely voluntary, transparent, and based on self reporting. Dozens of different metrics are included in the STARS measurements, including in the categories of curriculum (e.g., whether the institution offers sustainability-focused degree programs), campus engagement (e.g., whether sustainability-related outreach campaigns are held on campus), energy use (e.g., availability of clean and renewable energy sources on campus), transportation (e.g., inclusion of alternative fuel or hybrid electric vehicles in the institution’s fleet), and many more that are found in the credit checklist.

Based on performance based on these metrics, each school can earn up to 100 points and a corresponding rating of STARS Reporter, STARS Bronze, STARS Silver, STARS Gold, or STARS Platinum. Because STARS is self-reported, institutions can continually make improvements and resubmit for a higher score. However for the sake of this Green March Madness Tournament, the latest scores for all schools playing Division I NCAA basketball were pulled as of the beginning of February 2018, with any schools not participating in the STARS program receiving a score of zero.

The Cool Schools Ranking

The Sierra Club publishes an annual ranking called the Cool Schools Ranking to measure which schools are doing the most towards the Sierra Club’s broader sustainability priorities. The data for the Cool Schools Ranking largely comes from the STARS submissions as well, though with some key changes— the Sierra Club identifies the 62 questions of the STARS survey that they consider the most crucial to their definition of sustainability and put that data in a custom-built formula, they only use information submitted or updated to STARS within the past year, and they asked institutions to also detail what moves they have made to divest their endowment from fossil fuel companies (a question not asked by STARS).

As with STARS, participation in the Sierra Club’s rankings is completely voluntary and transparent, ultimately resulting in a numeric value on the 1000-point scale to use for the rankings. For the scoring towards the Green March Madness Tournament, all eligible teams had their Cool Schools Ranking score pulled and divided by 10 (so it would be on a 100-point scale like the STARS rating), while schools that were not included in the ranking were given a score of zero.

SaveOnEnergy Green Score

The last of the three rating systems used for the Green March Madness Tournament is the 2017 Green Score given by SaveOnEnergy.com. The goal of this scoring system is to give credit to institutions making “noteworthy progress in eco-friendliness and sustainability.” The SaveOnEnergy Green Score takes the top 100 schools in the U.S. News & World Report and awards them scores based on their Princeton Review Green Score, as well as state data on farmers markets, local public transportation options and walkability scores, density of parks in the area of the school, state data on clean and renewable energy options, and availability of green jobs.

The data for the SaveOnEnergy Green Score is a mix of voluntary data (e.g., data submitted to the Princeton Review Green Score) and mandatory statistics (e.g., state data on energy options and green jobs). In the end, SaveOnEnergy takes all of these factors to create a final score out of 100– though the score is only published for the top 25 schools, and the remaining schools are ranked without their score displayed. To account for this, a best-fit equation was used to correlate ranking with the score of the top 25 schools and extrapolated that equation to determine a score for the remaining ranked schools. Schools that did not make the SaveOnEnergy Green Score list were given a score of zero.

Final Green March Madness Tournament score

In the end, all 351 schools that participate in Division I basketball (representing 32 different athletic conferences) were given a final score that was the average of the STARS score, the Cool Schools Ranking score divided by 10, and the SaveOnEnergy Green Score, so that the final score is also on a 100-point scale (the final scores for all schools can be found in this article’s accompanying Google Spreadsheet).

Before moving forward, let’s make clear that this ranking system is mostly just for an overview of sustainability scores among schools based on publicly available data, and it should by no means be considered comprehensive. Indeed, each of the three ranking systems make clear that there are many more schools that care about energy and the environment and are also making great strides that do not appear on these lists. These schools might not have the time or resources to submit their data, the submission of the data to these third parties was not a priority, or they simply weren’t included on the U.S. News & World Report Top 100 Universities list and so their data was not included in the SaveOnEnergy Green Score list.

That being said, schools that take the time to report their sustainability are showing that doing so is a priority to them and demonstrating a commitment to the cause that should be applauded and recognized. While there are many schools that didn’t report their data that are certainly still environmentally friendly (indeed, about half of the schools in Division I basketball ended up with a score of zero for not appearing in any of the three lists, but it would be foolish to believe that none of those 178 schools are working towards energy efficiency and sustainability), the submission of data can be considered a sign that transparency regarding sustainability is important to those in charge and thus the reporting schools earn a well-deserved place in the Green March Madness Tournament scoring. For that reason, the rest of this article will unapologetically use the Green March Madness Tournament Score as the definitive factor to determine sustainability rankings of the schools.

Quick facts and figures

Before moving on to selecting which teams made the prestigious Green March Madness Tournament, let’s take a look at a few quick facts from the scoring:

173 out of 351 teams registered a score greater than zero on the Green March Madness Tournament Score, meaning over 100 schools who registered a non-zero score will still find themselves on the outside looking in.

Even rarer, though, are teams that have scores in all three scoring metrics used. Only 33 teams have a non-zero score in all three metrics, while only 112 teams have a non-zero score in two or more metrics.

As shown below in the table of conferences and conference champions, the highest score went to American University of the Patriot League with 73.4, while the lowest non-zero score went to South Dakota State of the Summit League with 9.2.

Looking at each of the 32 conferences: 4 conferences (Pacific-12, Big Ten, Ivy League, and Atlantic Coast) had 100% of their teams score greater than zero. 2 conferences (Atlantic Sun and Northeast) had only a single team score greater than zero, thus making the crowning of a conference champion rather easy. 5 conferences (Big South, Metro Atlantic Athletic, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Southland, and Southwestern Athletic) didn’t have any teams score greater than zero.



Selecting the field

Even though this is mostly a silly exercise, I still wanted to follow the protocol of the real NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee when determining who should make this ‘Big Green Dance’ (and, in doing so, gained some respect for the massive amount of puzzle pieces they must juggle!). The process is famously intense, with 10 committee members spending countless hours keeping up with the college basketball landscape during the year, only to convene for a five-day selection process that requires hundreds of secret ballots.

The entire process is very detailed, but it can be boiled down as follows:

All 32 conference champions receive an automatic bid into the tournament The next best 36 teams are then chosen as ‘at-large bids’ to bring the total field to 68 teams All 68 teams are ranked from top to bottom, regardless of their status as a conference champion The top four teams are ranked as number one seeds in each of the four regions, then the next four are two seeds, the next four are three seeds, etc. While placing teams into each region, care is taken to ensure that each of the four regions is fairly equally balanced and that teams that played each other during the season are prevented from having a rematch in the tournament until the later rounds (teams can be bumped up/down by a seed or two to assist in these requirements) The last four teams to make the tournament in at-large bids and the last four teams to make the field altogether are paired off to compete in the First Four games, with the winners advancing to the remaining field of 64.

While the criteria used to rank teams for the Selection Committee include resources such as the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), evaluations of quality wins based on where the game took place and how good the opponent was, and various computer metrics, things are easier in the Green March Madness Tournament Selection Committee as we only need to use the single number result of the Green March Madness Tournament Score.

The 68-team field

The bracket

For the full suite of teams, conferences, and scores, refer to the accompanying Google Spreadsheet of final figures. Using these numbers and sticking to the above selection guidelines as much as possible, the following bracket is the official result for the 2018 Green March Madness Tournament Bracket:

Click to enlarge

Breaking it down by each region for ease of reading:

The East region

The West region

The Midwest region

The South region

Note that the five conferences that didn’t produce a single team with a non-zero score would still get the automatic bids for their conference champion (four as play-in teams for the First Four and one more as a 16 seed without a play-in game), so perhaps they’ll draw straws to see who gets to go into the tournament. Regardless, they are in the bracket and labeled as that conference’s champion (placed in no particular order), just waiting to be beaten soundly by their respective sustainable opponents.

Analysis of the field

In terms of conferences, we see big winners come from the Pacific-12 (8 tournament teams) and the Big Ten (7 tournament teams), but in third is the surprise conference of the Ivy League (6 tournament teams) who is rarely in the conversation for getting more than a single team in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. On the other end of the surprises, the Big East and the Southeastern Conference (both major conferences that typically nab a handful of bids each) were kept to only one team each in the tournament.

For individual teams, we find some other surprises. A number of perennial stalwarts of the college basketball scene find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being on the outside looking in– 7 out of the 10 teams with the most NCAA Tournament appearances failed to receive a Green March Madness Tournament big (Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Louisville, Duke, Notre Dame, and Syracuse). On the other side of the coin, five teams (Denver, New Hampshire, William & Mary, UC Riverside, and Bryant University) that have never made the NCAA Tournament have finally found success with the Green March Madness Tournament.

Another common exercise leading up to the announcement of the NCAA Basketball Tournament teams is looking at the bubble teams, those that are just on the edge of making the tournament but find themselves potentially falling just short. The most painfully close bubble teams for the 2018 Green March Madness Tournament were the five teams that fell less than one point shy of an at-large bid: Louisville, Northern Arizona, Ohio State, IUPUI, and Arkansas. Most painful was Louisville who fell just 0.12 points shy of being the last team in (though maybe it was serendipity– who knows if Louisville would have had to vacate that appearance, too).

What did the top performing schools have in common?

Looking at the teams that scored particularly high and scored the best seeds in the Green March Madness Tournament, a couple of trends appear:

Sustainability-focused schools : It’s worth noting that every team that was ranked in all three metrics ended up with a good enough score to make the tournament. As previously noted, such commitment to ensuring data is delivered for all three metrics shows the cause of sustainability is a priority and these schools are naturally rewarded by being guaranteed to make the Green March Madness Tournament.

: It’s worth noting that every team that was ranked in all three metrics ended up with a good enough score to make the tournament. As previously noted, such commitment to ensuring data is delivered for all three metrics shows the cause of sustainability is a priority and these schools are naturally rewarded by being guaranteed to make the Green March Madness Tournament. City schools : A common theme found in the upper half of the schools that made the Green March Madness Tournament is that the are located in or near major U.S. cities (including one seeds American University and George Washington, three seed Northwestern, four seed Columbia, six seed Boston University, seven seed Denver, and eight seed Miami (FL)). The reason an urban setting might help schools score well in these rankings is because cities are more likely to have local sustainability organizations to partner with the school, access to effective public transportation, high walkability scores, and other nearby resources from the community that can be used for the school as well. Each of these factors positively effects the ratings that go into the Final Green March Madness Tournament Scores.

: A common theme found in the upper half of the schools that made the Green March Madness Tournament is that the are located in or near major U.S. cities (including one seeds American University and George Washington, three seed Northwestern, four seed Columbia, six seed Boston University, seven seed Denver, and eight seed Miami (FL)). The reason an urban setting might help schools score well in these rankings is because cities are more likely to have local sustainability organizations to partner with the school, access to effective public transportation, high walkability scores, and other nearby resources from the community that can be used for the school as well. Each of these factors positively effects the ratings that go into the Final Green March Madness Tournament Scores. Green states : Outside of the city in which a school is located, the state a school is in (and the state’s relative ‘green-ness’) has significant impact. The top of the tournament seeding is populated with teams from states often considered particularly green by various metrics. For example, the annual state scorecard rankings from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) shows heavy representation from the top five states in the ACEEE scorecard in the Green March Madness Tournament: Massachusetts (Boston University, Harvard, Massachusetts), California (UC Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, UC Riverside, San Jose State, UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge, California, San Diego), Rhode Island (Brown, Bryant University), Vermont (Vermont), and Oregon (Oregon State, Portland State, Oregon, Pacific). Together, those five states account for over a quarter of the teams that made the Green March Madness Tournament, reflecting the benefits to institutions in states that commit to green jobs, renewable energy development, and other sustainability initiatives.

The National Champion

The downside of filling out our bracket based on the Green March Madness Tournament Scores is that by continuing through with the tournament, we won’t find any upsets and the top seeds will always win (again, we’ll revisit once the real NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket is released to see which of those teams would win based on sustainability). In the end, our Final Four is made up of all one seeds, as shown below, with the final champion being…

Drumroll…

American University! In the three times appearing in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the Eagles have gone winless– but once the Green March Madness Tournament comes along they go all the way! Congratulations to them, and best of luck to all schools in the ‘real’ tournament in March, to all schools looking to improve their sustainability scores before next year’s Green March Madness Tournament, and to all of you in finding the best way to fill out the brackets for you office pool this year!







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To see a similar process used to determine who would have won the 2017-18 NFL season based on sustainability, check out this previous blog post.

Sources and additional reading

Cool Schools 2017 Full Ranking: Sierra Club

March Madness bracket: How the 68 teams are selected for the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament: NCAA

SaveOnEnergy 2017 Green Report: Top Universities in the U.S.: SaveOnEnergy

The Sustainable Tracking, Assessment & Rating System: Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

About the author: Matt Chester is an energy analyst in Washington DC, studied engineering and science & technology policy at the University of Virginia, and operates this blog and website to share news, insights, and advice in the fields of energy policy, energy technology, and more. For more quick hits in addition to posts on this blog, follow him on Twitter @ChesterEnergy.