For some putting together a NCAA Tournament bracket is easy. For the 10 members of the selection committee, life is not that simple. Instead, it takes a lot of time, careful consideration and analysis that needs to be done before awarding the players at 64 schools the experience of a lifetime.

"The whole process continues to amaze me," said Jane Meyer, the current chair of he NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee. "As the chair I will be able to watch it from the broader perspective, but every year I am fascinated that 10 people want to provide the best experience for everyone. We know we can't do it for all of the institutions, but we are so concerned that we do the best we can in finding those next 33 teams, seeding them correctly and then putting them in the bracket. To me that process is fascinating and how we work together as a true team to do that."

The members of the selection committee don't just wake up on a Thursday morning during the selection weekend to meet in Indianapolis and pick their favorites. Instead, it is a personal and professional commitment during a five-year tenure that helps create the blueprint that everyone around the country lives with for the three blissfully crazy weeks that lead up to the Women's Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.

"It is truly a personal and institutional commitment, said Meyer, who is a Senior Associate Director of Athletics at the University of Iowa. "You have to have an institution that supports you with being gone. For instance in March, I will be in the office six-to-eight days during the whole month. I am grateful that Iowa supports this because there isn't anyone back at the school that is doing my job."

"It's also a huge personal commitment because a committee member spends a significant amount of time watching games. You are either on the road or away on weekends out watching games. If you want to do that, it's great, but you have to have a love and passion for women's basketball because it becomes your life from November to the seventh or eighth of April. I absolutely love this. Otherwise I wouldn't do it."

After watching countless basketball games throughout the season, the selection committee meets up in Indianapolis from March 11-14 and do nothing more than eat, breathe, dream and talk about women's hoops. From the initial analysis of how the teams are ranked through the RPI to the analysis given by each conference monitor, no stone is left unturned when it comes to selecting the teams.

"The detail in which each person gets to based on their personality was a little bit surprising to me," said Carolayne Henry, who is in her first year of being part of the selection committee. "Certain committee members like to focus on certain things, but collectively we look at everything. It's good that there are 10 people because you have 10 perspectives which helps us to have the best product."

The selection committee members consist of officials from both NCAA member schools and the 31 conference offices. New members are added based on the number of vacancies during the upcoming year and a vetting process. Once a person becomes a selection committee member, they are on it for five years. While serving their term, someone else from the same conference can not be added to the committee. For instance, with Meyer currently on the committee, another person from the Big Ten conference can not be added to the committee until Meyer's tenure is over. The five year is good for the committee members as it enables them keep learning and growing with the process.

"You do get wiser through the process and part of it is because as a first year committee member coming in, the information available to you and how you actually use it in the room, you have to go through the process to know that," said Meyer. "I remember my first committee orientation and I sat here thinking 'Oh, my!' I thought I had come in prepared, but I truly did not have a sense of things."

"The second time you go through this you realize you have it and know how to use the information from the games you have watched. It's just gaining the experience. It's never comfortable because you realize you always have something more to learn. It's also important to learn to be open to your colleagues in the room because they too have been doing their homework. You grow from this like in any experience. The more you do it you gain that perspective, which I think is important."

Women's basketball fans may not always agree with the final field that the selection committee puts together, but it is a method behind the madness that happens only once a year.

"I think the committee is very consistent in selecting the teams and following the principles," said Henry. "I think it is different that what the general public thinks it is. Instead there is a lot of consideration given how well the teams play, what their records are against teams in the Top 25, Top 50 and Top 100 and other factors. When we go through those and then compare teams, there's just a lot more thought that goes into it than what the average person imagines."

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