College basketball, how does it work? now i know!!

bomber5

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ive been following the college basketball a little this year, and since im on the topic, i dont understand all this different divisons, example is kentucky, north carolina etc, then we have gonzaga and st marys and davidson? are they different age groups? different divisons? is there rankings? which college players have the chance to make the nba draft? its just so full on i dont understand.

Also could someone explain the age situation of sophomore, senior etc, who are the ones who get drafted ?
cheers in advance.
 
there are 3 divisions. division I is what you are watching in the ncaa tourney. this division is divided up into 31 conferences (based on location). you can enter a div1 team if your college participates in at least 7 different sports with both male and female teams. there are also other financial and participation minimums that must be adhered to, but basically if you can field 7 teams youre gonna match up to the other standards needed.
march madness (the finals) is made up of the 31 conference champions and another 37 teams selected by a special commitee made up of athletic directors and the like.
usually a div1 team is made up of seniors (final year students) sometimes with a junior (2nd last year) or sophomore (2nd year) and rarely even a freshman (1st year).
the rankings are made up by the AP (associated press) in a weekly poll of 25 people, which are then averaged out to find the 'top 25'.
any college player has a chance to make the NBA draft. all seniors are automatically available, while lower years have to declare their eligibiltiy. international players who are 22 are automatically eligible. under 22 you need to declare. high school students need to be at least 1 year out of school (and 19 years of age minimum).

GO TARHEELS!!!
 
ok so divison 1 ,2 and 3 are all the same level in team status? example, north carolina is in div 1 say, and st mary is div 3, but they are the same as in prospect universities? just they dont ever play each other?
 
not sure i get the question? prospect universities? team status?
st marys (california?) is a div1 team. just in a different conference. they could play each other in the finals, but not their regular seasons. the regular seasons are played against teams within your own conference.
or do mean a different st marys? if theres another st marys in div3, then no, that team and UNC could not play each other...a div 3 college is very small (student population wise), has little money and offers no scholarships.
both div1 and div3 teams are made up of the same aged players tho (seniors mostly). just that div1 teams have money and div3 teams dont.
 
so divison 1 teams are like gonzaga who won today, st mary, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, syracuse etc there all in div 1 but different conferences? so when they win there conference final, they can play each other in the national title sort of thing?
 

yep, thats pretty much the system. except duke and UNC are in the same conference (atl.coast). they beat us yesterday.
altho just because duke (for example) dont win the conference, doesnt mean they wont be in the ncaa finals. theyll be part of the 37 'at large berths' selections/invitations.
theres something like 350 teams in div1 at the minute.
a div 3 team can win every div 3 championship for a decade but theyll still be playing div 3 because of the financial situation of the college. very rarely a div 2 or 3 player will be drafted into the NBA but its usally the kids from div 1 since they play in the harder comp...
 
Awesome explanation there Mak. I had a rough idea of the system but that has cleared it up for me perfectly.

Its mind blowing to think they have 350 universities just in div 1. Australia would have what 20-30 overall lol

GO TARHEELS!!!!
 
Awesome explanation there Mak. I had a rough idea of the system but that has cleared it up for me perfectly.

Its mind blowing to think they have 350 universities just in div 1. Australia would have what 20-30 overall lol

GO TARHEELS!!!!

no bother. US has more than 10x the amount of people as oz, so it probably works out ratio wise?
always suprised me that more peeps arent into college ball. its full of talent and enrgy and promise and players wanting to prove themselves. id go as far as to say UNC has a larger fan base than the bobcats (just guessing but). that guess comes from my season of going to UNC games (mostly home) compared to the couple of bobcat games i got to.
in alot of polls/surveys tho college football is 3rd most popular sport behind pro football and baseball. latest harris poll puts pro basketball at 5th behind auto-racing (nascar basically).
and yes: GO TARHEELS!!!
 
Oh yeah I know US has 300mill+ people. Ratio would still be well in their favour. They have a lot younger demographic overall I think.
 
good explanation, something I've wondered myself.

i further question, how does the ranking work? I always see on ESPN, some teams have the ranking numbers next to their names etc. Are the ranking conference based, or is it an overall ranking of the 350 odd teams in div 1.
 

the AP poll is made up of the top 25 teams nation wide. the rankings in each conference are decided by win-loss ratio...
rankings are pretty much useless (for basketball), but as a general rule the top 25 ranked teams will be in the ncaa finals. most of them will win their respective conference and the rest will be given an invitation...
 
Great explanation. As a long time College Ball Addict otherwise known as an "NCAA Junky" I would not have been able to explain this question any better. There are so many details involved with College Ball, I wouldnt know where to start lol.

As you can tell from my avatar, "GO BLUE!!" is my catch-cry and I dont mean Carolina Blue either. Loving this season with the Wolverines doing so well. Here's hoping we can have a great tournament run this season before we (likely) lose both Burke and Hardaway Jr to the NBA.

And for the record, the NCAA Tourney is one of the best "playoff systems" ever invented. All games are like Game 7's in NBA, without having to play the other 6 obviously.
 

glad to find another college watcher out there. im guessing your interest started with the fab5?
i think i prefer the NBA playoff system, but the ncaa have done a hell of a job in making an awesome playoff scheme while having to consider soooooo many colleges...and i think march madness is more popular than regular NBA playoffs aswell.
UNC havent been doing too great, but we should make it...as long as duke dont win the conference i'll be happy. the U (miami) have been a huge suprise...ranked 9th
one more week 'til the madness...