Business Professors Predict NCAA Basketball Tournament Field; Predictive Software Produces 94 Percent Accuracy over the Last Decade.

CARY, N.C. -- The following is a satellite newsfeed advisory:

Every year, on "Selection Sunday" (note: this year, it's March 13), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee announces its picks for the "big dance" that culminates in the crowning of the men's college basketball champion -- and every year the announcement sets off a storm of controversy. But two college professors have discovered a method to March Madness. Using analytical software from SAS (rhymes with "class"), they have predicted the tournament field with 94 percent accuracy for more than a decade.

Jay Coleman, an operations management professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and Allen Lynch, an economics professor at Mercer University in Georgia, have analyzed the factors used by the selection committee in order to predict the selection of at-large teams -- those teams that did not get an automatic bid to the tournament via a conference tournament win.

By using predictive software, the professors' Dance Card application (http://DanceCard.unf.edu), which is updated regularly, has determined what factors matter in who gets in, and what factors don't. For example, a team's record in their last 10 games (the "hot team" argument) is irrelevant, despite the fact that many experts claim the opposite.

But the usefulness of predictive, or analytic, software doesn't stop at basketball. Businesses use it everyday to predict things critical to their success. For example, analytics can be used to predict which bank customers will respond to direct mail on home equity loans, which retail floor plan will sell more designer shoes, or which combination of medical treatments will keep a diabetic healthy and out of intensive care.

THIS SATELLITE FEED CONTAINS (in order):

1. Video News Release with voiceover, no supers

2. Video News Release with no voiceover, no supers

3. Interview segments:
-- Quote #1 - Allen Lynch
-- Quote #2 - Jay Coleman
-- Quote #3 - Allen Lynch

4. B-Roll:
-- NCAA Basketball footage
-- Professors playing with basketball
-- Catalog / mass mailing reference
-- Drug/medicine research
-- SAS entrance
-- Aerial photo of SAS campus
-- People using SAS
-- SAS Tech Support person on phone

5. Supers:
-- Jay Coleman, Professor, Operations Management and Quantitative
   Methods, University of North Florida
-- Allen Lynch, Associate Professor of Economics, Mercer University

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  FEED DATE:  TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2005
  FEED TIME:  2:00 - 2:30 PM ET
COORDINATES:  IA 6 / Transponder 16 (c-band) Downlink frequency:
              4020 (H)
TRT:          06:49

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