A method to the madness: predicting the winner of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Data analysis is an emerging field that has recently been applied to the field of sports as well. From movies like Moneyball to the NFL Combine, everyone wants to reduce indicators of future success down to a few simple numbers. This idea is what led to my investigation of NCAA March Madness. Each year, thousands of Americans fill out brackets with their predictions of tournament results, but is there a methodical way to approach this? I analyze and interpret statistics from the years 2012 to 2019 in an attempt to create a single indicator as to who will win the tournament. In disregarding the results of preliminary rounds to solely predict the final champion, I look to combine many statistics gathered throughout the regular season into one final score for potential success.