DELPHI, Ind. -- Inside Mr. Tonsoni's classroom in Delphi High School there is a think tank of students spending hours talking about college basketball.
”Nevada has a Quad 3 loss," one student said, as the group talked over the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket the group is putting together.
”We got the mountain-west tournament to watch," said another.
It’s a flurry of questions, stats, games, agreements and of course, disagreements in the Delphi Bracketology Club.
”I think I've looked at the bracket at least a million times this week," said Nikita Lear, a Delphi High School senior and one of the senior editors of the club.
Lear, along with fellow senior editor and high school senior Cayden Gasser, lead the club. It is something they call a full-time job.
”At least 20, 30 hours," Gasser said.
The group of nine dedicated students watch NCAA Men's Basketball feverishly.
”We try to be the NCAA committee," said Brian Tonsoni, a Delphi teacher and the sponsor of the Bracketology club.
The students are looking at much more than just the record book or box score, diving into the analytics behind each team.
”It's a mathematical formula of offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, who you played and where you played," Tonsoni said.
Tonsoni has led the group since its creation 10 years ago, starting with a simple conversation over where the Purdue and Indiana basketball teams would be seeded in that year's tournament.
Now, each year a group of students try and predict what 68 teams the NCAA Selection Committee will pick for the NCAA Tournament and which seed each will get.
The group is pretty good at it – in 2016 they even won the Bracket Championship. It's a national competition where people enter in their guess for the field of 68 and then the brackets are ranked to see who has the most accurate submission.
”We ended up winning the whole thing and had the best score ever at that time," Tonsoni said.
Last year was the second-best score the group had ever gotten, an even better record than their 2016 championship.
”Seeing our score from last year beating our 2016 score was really amazing," Gasser said.
We put Lear and Gasser to the test with some of Indiana's teams. Sorry to Bulldog and Hoosier fans but they don't see either in the big dance, unless they win their respective tournaments.
”Not in it, not in it," Gasser and Lear said at nearly the same time when asked about Indiana.
Purdue is the exact opposite, an easy 1 seed for the Bracketology Club and guaranteed points in their bracket.
The interesting team is the Indiana State Sycamores. The team has put together one of the best seasons in school history but lost in the Missouri Valley Championship, the Sycamores' only shot at a guaranteed bid to the tourney.
Whether Indiana State is in or out, Lear and Gasser don't see eye to eye on. Lear thinks they need some help but Gasser thinks they should be in regardless.
”If an at-large bid wins the conference tourney, as well, they could probably sneak in there," said Lear.
”I believe Indiana State is going to be in the bracket just because of how well they played at the beginning of the season," Gasser said.
As of Wednesday morning, the Bracketology Club did have the Sycamores in their bracket.
Aside from getting to talk about the complexities of college basketball, Tonsoni said there are some real-world lessons these students learn.
”There's a great experience, great writing, great speaking, great math and it's all fun because there's no grade and they want to be there," Tonsoni said.
The group has it's own website where they update brackets and college basketball news and an X account with more than 6,000 followers.
Lear and Gasser have both seen the personal positive impacts throughout members of the club.
Lear plans to pursue a sports media career at Purdue and Gasser said he's become a more comfortable speaker, both in public and in the Bracketology Club.
The entire college basketball season leads up to Selection Sunday, for both NCAA teams and the club.
”It just gets hype," Lear said. "This week in general, our big meeting, Selection Sunday, it's just very hype."
The group will have a final meeting Wednesday night to essentially lock down their picks, barring any major upsets in the conference tournaments. The meeting on Wednesday will be a couple of hours long, with multiple decisions still to be made.
”Maybe San Diego State over St. Mary's?" one student asked as the group looked over their master bracket spreadsheet Wednesday afternoon.
The Bracketology Club will watch the Selection Sunday Special together, cheering when the committee makes the same decisions they did.
”It's like we're shooting three-pointers," Tonsoni said. "When we get the team right, 'Yaaah!'”
The group is always looking for another Bracket Championship.
”I want to be able to prove that we got what it takes and we're not just a small club from a high school, that we got what it takes to be in the big leagues," Lear said.
As for predicting the winners of each game in the NCAA Tournament, Lear and Gasser said all the analytics and knowledge don't help as much as one might think. The magic of March Madness takes over.