Josh Tinley.com NCAA Tournament Breakdown (Men's Edition)

Religious Affiliation

Roman Catholic schools are always well represented in the NCAA tournament, but the Pope will be especially happy with this year's bracket. 10 squads from Roman Catholic schools will be in action in this week's opening rounds. The "Archdiocese of Hoops" includes Georgetown, Notre Dame, Boston College, Marquette, Villanova, Xavier, Creighton, Gonzaga, Holy Cross, and Niagara. Aside from Notre Dame, Villanova, and Niagara, all of these schools are affiliated with the Jesuit order. No other faith tradition has more than one school in the Dance. Here's the complete breakdown:

Roman Catholic (Jesuit): Georgetown, Boston College, Marquette, Xavier, Creighton, Gonzaga, Holy Cross
Roman Catholic (regular): Notre Dame
Roman Catholic (Augustinian): Villanova
Roman Catholic (Vincentian): Niagara
United Methodist: Duke
Latter-Day Saints: Brigham Young
Presbyterian: Davidson
Charismatic: Oral Roberts
Baptist: Belmont

Breakdown by State

Texas is home to more NCAA tournament schools—five—than any other state. Five states—Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, California, and Ohio—are represented by four schools each.

One way to determine which states are best represented is to assign points based on seeds (16 points for a #1, 15 for a #2, and so on) and total the points for schools in a given state. Here's what you get:

1. Indiana: 41 (#5 Butler, #6 Notre Dame, #7 Indiana, #9 Purdue)
2. Tennessee: 40 (#2 Memphis, #5 Tennessee, #6 Vanderbilt, #15 Belmont)
3. Texas: 38 (#3 Texas A&M, #4 Texas, #10 Texas Tech, #15 Texas A&M Corpus Christi, #15 North Texas)
3. California: 38 (#2 UCLA, #5 USC, #11 Stanford, #12 Long Beach St.)
5. Virginia: 36 (#4 Virginia, #5 Virginia Tech, #11 Virginia Commonwealth, #12 Old Dominion)
6. North Carolina: 31 (#1 North Carolina, #6 Duke, #13 Davidson)
7. Ohio: 30 (#1 Ohio State, #9 Xavier, #14 Wright State, #14 Miami)
8. Pennsylvania: 25 (#3 Pittsburgh, #9 Villanova, #14 Penn)
9. Wisconsin: 24 (#2 Wisconsin, #8 Marquette)
10. Kentucky: 21 (#6 Louisville, #8 Kentucky, #16 Eastern Kentucky)
10. D.C.: 21 (#2 Georgetown, #11 George Washington)
12. Nevada: 20 (#7 UNLV, #7 Nevada)

By my count, 20 states are not represented in the tournament. Some of these (Alaska, the Dakotas) are not surprising. Others are. For examples, there are no schools from Alabama (no Alabama, no Auburn, no UAB), or Iowa (no Iowa, no Iowa State, no Northern Iowa), or Missouri (no Missouri, no Missouri State, no St. Louis).