The NCAA is joining forces with colleges across Indiana to host a data analytics competition that gives high school and college students the opportunity to apply cutting-edge data science and machine learning to real-world business and operational challenges faced by the NCAA.
The Men’s Final Four Analytics Challenge — formerly the Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge — is a revised version of the academic competition that has taken place since 2021. This year, teams will explore the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship from multiple angles, creating analytical insights.
The event begins today with a kickoff event at the NCAA Hall of Champions and culminates at the Indiana Convention Center on April 6, the day of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship title game.
The NCAA rebranded the competition to pair it with the Men’s Final Four, hosted this year in Indianapolis. With the finals of the Division II and III Men’s Basketball Championships also taking place in Indianapolis this year, the field of participants has expanded to students from all 23 Division I, II and III schools in the state.
Teams compete in three rounds, beginning with the development of machine learning models built on the NCAA’s case data. Advancing students will then produce forecasts, business reports and video explanations before the top undergraduate and graduate teams move on to represent their schools in the final championship round.
The competition, co-hosted by Butler, allows college students to interact with real-world analytic problems and prepare them with the skills and software needed to solve them.
“The NCAA is proud to help students explore data analytics through the lens of sport,” said Josh Jay, NCAA director of business analytics. “These skills will empower them far beyond the court in today’s data-driven world.”
Awards for the undergraduate and graduate competitions will be $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, $500 for third place and $500 for the project with the best visualization. The challenge also offers an experiential division, designed for students seeking enrichment without competing for prizes.
In addition to collegiate programming, high school students will be invited to participate in the IU Indy DataViz Games, a statewide competition hosted by the Sport Innovation Institute at Indiana University Indianapolis.
This competition encourages high school students to combine analytical thinking, design skills and narrative clarity to highlight the growing significance and impact of college basketball.
Participants, either individually or in groups up to three, will examine 10 years of NCAA Division I basketball attendance data and produce a visual story explaining the trends and influences behind the data.
“At IU Indianapolis, we want students to experience data as a tool for curiosity and storytelling,” said Liz Wanless, director of the Sport Innovation Institute at the school. “The DataViz Games give high school students the chance to explore real college sports data, ask their own questions, and see themselves as future analysts, designers and decision-makers.”
Submissions will be accepted until March 11, with the winner being revealed March 16. NCAA representatives, as well as faculty and students from IU Indianapolis’ Sport Management program in the School of Health & Human Sciences, will judge the entries. The winning individual or team will receive tickets to Final Four fan events. High school students interested in the IU Indy DataViz Games can learn more about the competition via go.iu.edu/datavizgames.
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