Crowning The SALT Blog’s March Madness Champion

We’re not too late for Jimmermania, right?

College basketball is by far my favorite sport, and the tournament is my favorite event of the year. (Let’s not mention that I’ll be working during the games today and tomorrow. I could write 10 blog posts about how to follow the games at work, but that won’t lead to anything productive.)

Last year, I wrote about the madness, and I did it big—creating my own money-savvy, SALT™-centric metric to fill out a bracket: JAM Score. The post was one of my most read, and ESPN’s resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi even retweeted my tweet about it.

So, would we retire the JAM Score after its one shining moment and move on? Of course not! Hit the music, Quad City DJs! LET’S JAM!

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First, a quick refresh on the JAM Score. (For a full explanation, check out last year’s post).

The acronym (although it may be a “backcronym”) stands for “Jubilations Adjusted for Money.” Basically, it identifies the schools that give their students the most to cheer about—thanks to good basketball play and great college prices.

To win our championship, tuition and financial aid grants matter just as much as a team’s skills. If all were fair in the world, we’d totally take home Warren Buffet’s $1 billion with our effort.

The Results

Last year, our bracket featured 16 seeds advancing and crazy upsets. This year, things look a little tamer. Sure, a 10 seed defeats a 12 seed in our championship game, but some early round outcomes make sense. Schools across the nation must have been working hard all year to improve their JAM Score, I can only assume.

You can find our complete bracket here, but let’s dig into some highlights:

This Year’s JAM Score Champs Are …

The BYU Cougars! Their fans cheered their squad to eight wins over RPI top-100 foes while paying the lowest tuition of any school in this year’s field.

Sure, the team lost one of its star players (Kyle Collinsworth) to a season-ending injury, but JAM Score thinks they rally together and roll through this tournament. (Money-saving advice: Don’t use JAM Score’s advice if there’s money on the line. Not that you’d wager on the tourney or anything.)

Shocking The World … Almost

Wichita State has the most wins in the country and is riding a perfect season. Unfortunately, only Weber State gives out less average aid than Wichita State (WSU and WSU!). If not for that, the Shockers would have easily taken the top spot in the rankings.

Poor Cal Poly

They finished last in our ranking. On the bright side, they had a better JAM Score than my alma mater, Boston College (I ran the numbers on that one). And their coach never did this. So, that’s a win.

A Happy Editor

I’m sure Ryan eagerly awaited the arrival of this post, and he was rewarded, seeing his Syracuse Orange take advantage of the weak South Region and head to the Final Four. (Editor’s note: Onions! Even the JAM Score doesn’t know what to do with the two-three zone!)

Big State Schools Underperformed

Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, Iowa, Michigan State, and others scored well below where you might think. Winning big games couldn’t offset high out-of-state tuition prices.

For many people, the best way to score great hoops and save money is by staying in-state. If I had used in-state tuition figures, I think Florida’s score might have broken my computer.

How About Harvard!

The highest amount of average financial aid (for the second straight year) pushed them to the second highest JAM Score and the National Championship game. Not to mention, I’ve heard it’s a pretty good school.

The Superlatives

Highest tuition and fees: Duke ($59,520)
Lowest tuition and fees: BYU ($17,470)
Most average aid given: Harvard ($46,051)
Least average aid given: Weber State ($3,984)
Most wins: Wichita State (33)
Most wins vs. RPI Top 100: Kansas (18)

Here’s a complete look at all the numbers that went into JAM Score this year.

	Name	Wins	Vs. Top 100	Tuition	Aid	JAM
1	BYU	22	8	$17,470	$6,103	263.92
2	Harvard	25	2	$57,050	$46,051	245.48
3	Iowa State	26	15	$31,032	$11,945	214.81
4	Wichita State	33	10	$24,631	$4,303	211.53
5	Creighton	26	14	$46,776	$27,820	211.01
6	Duke	26	12	$59,528	$40,561	200.35
7	Oklahoma	23	11	$34,927	$17,103	190.75
8	Manhattan	25	5	$48,335	$32,479	189.20
9	Mercer	23	1	$47,033	$34,221	187.32
10	Syracuse	27	12	$55,600	$34,700	186.60
11	Villanova	28	16	$56,583	$32,848	185.38
12	Kentucky	24	14	$33,148	$11,150	172.74
13	Stanford	21	7	$58,846	$42,514	171.44
14	North Dakota State	22	3	$29,203	$14,473	169.72
15	George Washington	24	11	$58,985	$38,313	169.31
16	Arizona	30	16	$40,925	$12,526	161.98
17	NC Central	26	1	$28,569	$11,865	161.64
18	Florida	31	16	$42,290	$13,093	160.98
19	Gonzaga	27	10	$46,615	$23,576	160.60
20	Kansas	24	18	$35,404	$8,716	157.37
21	U Mass	24	13	$39,167	$14,197	148.18
22	Western Michigan	22	8	$35,976	$15,353	145.47
23	Baylor	22	12	$49,038	$25,587	144.98
24	New Mexico	27	7	$33,712	$9,905	142.82
25	Oklahoma State	21	8	$33,617	$13,103	141.37
26	Ohio State	25	13	$40,327	$13,115	139.64
27	Kansas State	20	9	$32,498	$11,707	139.48
28	Colorado	23	8	$49,750	$27,132	137.06
29	Dayton	23	10	$46,250	$22,149	136.92
30	Virginia	27	12	$51,337	$22,702	136.20
31	Louisville	29	9	$35,856	$7,863	135.75
32	VCU	26	12	$39,628	$11,277	134.03
33	San Diego State	27	6	$35,671	$10,400	130.58
34	Michigan	25	15	$51,976	$21,255	130.20
35	NC State	21	6	$33,809	$12,880	129.01
36	Arizona State	21	8	$36,254	$13,755	128.89
37	Stephen F. Austin	27	1	$32,769	$10,764	127.24
38	St. Louis	25	9	$53,448	$26,644	126.85
39	Nebraska	19	8	$34,450	$13,076	126.32
40	New Mexico State	25	3	$32,132	$9,463	123.52
41	UNC	23	11	$43,847	$16,014	122.16
42	Providence	23	8	$56,402	$29,685	116.03
43	Louisiana-Lafayette	20	2	$27,067	$8,073	115.83
44	Tulsa	21	6	$48,803	$25,426	115.50
45	Wisconsin	26	12	$40,012	$6,961	114.97
46	Xavier	20	9	$45,080	$19,820	114.81
47	UCLA	26	11	$54,810	$22,560	114.73
48	U Conn	26	10	$43,954	$12,086	112.97
49	Pittsburgh	25	7	$40,404	$12,039	112.82
50	Michigan State	25	11	$43,986	$11,718	111.57
51	Eastern Kentucky	22	2	$27,548	$5,920	110.97
52	St. Joe’s	23	9	$53,130	$24,005	109.87
53	Cincinnati	27	9	$42,238	$9,167	108.86
54	Memphis	22	6	$37,525	$9,840	101.14
55	Oregon	23	9	$42,720	$10,616	99.68
56	Texas	23	12	$48,730	$12,525	96.67
57	Iowa	19	7	$40,054	$13,020	96.18
58	Delaware	25	1	$41,830	$14,427	94.88
59	Mount St. Mary’s	16	0	$40,800	$23,861	94.46
60	Albany	18	0	$29,326	$9,960	92.95
61	Tennessee	20	7	$43,236	$12,866	88.90
62	Milwaukee	20	2	$32,432	$7,224	87.27
63	American	20	2	$55,353	$29,923	86.51
64	Wofford	17	0	$48,129	$27,554	82.62
65	Weber State	17	0	$27,118	$3,984	73.48
66	Coastal Carolina	18	0	$34,727	$9,685	71.88
67	Texas Southern	18	0	$33,566	$7,110	68.04
68	Cal Poly	11	0	$35,548	$9,763	42.66

All the tuition data used was found on the Institute of Education Science’s College Navigator site and all financial aid figures were found on The College Board’s website.

We’ll keep track of how Shane’s bracket does in the comments, so be sure to check back!

(Photo: Wikimedia)

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