Basketball Stats Showdown 2025
The sports world is filled with a massive amount of data. And figuring out how to analyze it can be a (literal) game changer. Players, coaches and front office staff build hypotheses, create algorithms and dissect the information to shape their performance both on and off the court, so we want to give teenagers across Indiana the same opportunity to use their critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork skills during the Nextech Stats Showdown.
Stats Showdown introduces Hoosier students to the exciting world of data science and data analytics through college basketball and the NCAA Tournament.
The Nextech Stats Showdown competition is back for 2024! Student teams will be tasked with using past tournament data (2013-2023) to create an algorithm that most accurately determines the top 10 most winningest teams in the NCAA tournament bracket. There are two ways to win: (1) the winning team per division (middle and high school) will win a traveling trophy to display in their school, a pizza party and bragging rights for the year and (2) the school with the highest team scores average will win a pizza party for the team members from their school.
New This Year!
Stats Showdown Quick Pick Data Challenge is a modified version of the Nextech Stats Showdown Data Science Bracket Competition built for K-8 teachers and their students to participate in a fun, real-world data science competition.
This pared-down challenge strips away extra data from the regular competition and focuses on easy to understand data cards about each team.
There are two ways to win: (1) the winning team per division (elementary and middle school) will win a traveling trophy to display in their school, a pizza party and bragging rights for the year and (2) the school with the highest team scores average will win a pizza party for the team members from their school.
Who Can Participate?
This challenge is open to teams of students in grades K-8 from any school throughout Indiana. Teams could be as small as 2 students and as large as the entire class submitting one selection set.
Challenge Schedule
| February 1 (or after) | Last year’s data cards are released to sponsors who are already registered, and student groups can start developing a plan for picking the top 4 teams. If sponsors register after February 1, they will receive the data set and instructions within 2 business days. |
| Sunday, March 16, 2025 | Selection Sunday |
| No later than Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | Sponsors are provided the 2025 data cards. |
| March 18-25, 2025 | Teams follow along the tournament results, removing cards of teams that lost and are no longer in the tournament. |
| Wednesday, March 26, 2025 | Teams submit their top 4 team selections to Nextech with an explanation of why they selected those teams and in that specific order. |
| March 27-30, 2025 | Rounds 3 and 4 of the NCAA Tournament (Sweet 16 & Elite 8) |
| Throughout Tournament | Teams will be provided updates on Stats Showdown Quick Pick Data Challenge results. |
| Saturday, April 5, 2025 | The Final Four |
| Monday, April 7, 2025 | The Championship Game |
| Friday, April 18, 2025 | Winners notified on or before date; prizes distributed. |
Want to learn more? Watch this quick video with Stephanie Zircher and Jenna Garcia from the Nextech team.
Still have questions? Email Jenna Garcia at jenna@nextech.org
