Tournament travel doubles the odds of an upset in college basketball, researchers say.
Looking at the success of lower-seeded teams in relation to starting times, Kass found that about twice as many upsets occurred in the tournament as chance would dictate when teams traveled from one coast to the other. Teams play their best in games that take place at practice times, when the body expects to play. Regardless of travel, playing in the afternoon nets higher-ranked teams an average drop of 5 points for the same reason, according to the study, presented last month at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Miami. Morning play causes a 10-point decrease in scoring. In comments first reported in the magazine Science News , Kass called on the NCAA to reschedule games to account for biorhythms.