Free Quebec

Looks to me like Geography was a huge factor.

Think about it. With the exception of Xavier, nearly every puzzling seed wound up playing in the first two rounds in a place that is very convenient for travel.


The two furthest west bubble teams, Air Force and Utah St. (if you even considered them bubble teams before today) get in the tourney and magically play in the two west locations, San Diego and Salt Lake. No long travel burden for Cincy, Michigan, Missouri St. or Hofstra.

Montana draws a puzzling 12 seed... which magically puts them in Salt Lake City.

Nevada surprises everyone with a 5 seed... which magically lands them in Salt Lake City.

SD St. gets an 11... which magically puts them in Salt Lake (closes place they are allowed to play).

Pacific gets a shockingly generous 13...which magically puts them in Salt Lake.


Sensing a pattern here with Salt Lake?


How about Greensboro?

Winthrop gets screwed with a 15... which magically puts them in Greensboro.

GW gets screwed with an 8... which magically puts them in Greensboro (one of the two places in driving distance).

UNC-Wilmington gets a 9... which magically puts them in Greensboro, where they get a virtual home court advantage.


How about Dallas?

Arkansas gets an 8 seed (and a higher one than GW at that)... which magically puts them in Dallas (closest place).

Oral Roberts surprises everyone by getting just a 16 seed... which magically puts them in the closest place, Dallas.

There's more, too, as virtually every puzzling seed got a close geographic location:

Everyone had Kent St. as a 13, but they get a 12... which magically puts them a couple hour drive to Auburn Hills.

Bradley gets that puzzling 13... but look where it magically lands them: Auburn Hills.

Seems to me like the committee went old school here, paying as much attention to geography as to where teams should play.

Free Quebec

Addendum: UCLA gets a surprising 2 seed. Worse still, if you go by the S-curve, they would have to be considered the #5 overall team.... which magically puts them in the Oakland region.

Gonzaga gets a 3 seed. Not surprising to me, but I guess many are complaining. What's more surprising is that on the s-curve, they'd be only #12..... which magically puts them in the Oakland regoin.

No doubt geography was as important than any other factor in the seedings this year.

X-band '01

Gonzaga would have played in Salt Lake regardless of a 2 or 3 seed, but you have a fair point relating to being in the Oakland regional.

clark1

This is old news, several years ago the committee said they would take location into consideration for placement. Helps college students figure where Chicago or Miami is on a map. Geography to them is wherever an airplane can take them.

WH

I think what Free is suggesting is that some teams got surprise at-large bids to fill a geographic quota, primarily in terms of fielding enough teams to play in the West bracket that are actually based on the West Coast. There might be something to it.

rhodyruckus

But if that's the case, you know who really got screwed? Boston College. They get a 4 seed and have to go out to SLC to play all those teams who will have their home crowds there. The committee really threw down the gauntlet there.

Dr. Jack

Further code needs to be cracked, however.

If GW got dropped due to their OOC, and Fl State didn't get in at all due to theirs, how exactly is Texas A & M or Air Force in this field? My guess is because the Big 12 had to have 4 teams, and the US is currently at war. Craig Littlepaige lies with a poker face on TV so well that he could have represented OJ.

DC Muskie

Did I really see that Tennessee is a 2 seed? And that Air Force made the oturnament?

What code did the committee use for that thinking?

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Dunga

For what it's worth, I watched Utah St. in their tourney take on Louisiana Tech and they would get rocked by the more athletic A10 teams. The top 8 or 10 A10 teams would have little trouble with them. And I should say that I watched that game between A10 tourney games, so the play was fresh in my mind and I was thinking (re: Utah St.) NIT at best, weak, the drop off in athleticism and overall play obvious. I haven't seen Nevada play (the best team out of the WAC), or Air Force (in reference to above quote), but Utah St. took Nevada to overtime in the final of the WAC tournament. I predict both teams exit early.

Wasn't the WAC commissioner a member of the selection committee? Someone posted the list in some other thread.

ChrisGags

Committee members must excuse themselves from any discussion on a team from their conference. Also, in terms of geography, the committee said, when they started the Pod system, that they only offer protection to the top 5 seeds in each bracket. You can still get a tough draw as they have to play the games somewhere and the top teams get first dibs, thus having UCONN and Nova, two #1 seeds, both playing in Philly as it is the closest opening round game for them.

Free Quebec

1) In his column on ESPN, Andy Katz quotes Craig Littlepage as saying the committee sent a message that there is good basketball being played all over the country. It looks to me like all those years of crying "east coast bias" finally worked and we the committee bend over backwards to prove otherwise. It may be time to start talking about west coast bias.

2) Katz also says the comittee watched Utah St.-Nevada and thought Utah St. looked good and that's why they got in. I watched it, too. I watched them miss a wide open layup at the buzzer that would have given them an auto bid and I watched their slow team look like an average A-10 team at best. I guess that shows that "Body of work" is no longer operative. It's now based on whoever is on TV and how they happen to play the day the committee decides to watch them.

3) Worst news of all -- Katz says that Air Force got in by finishing 2nd in the #8 ranked conference. That gives lie to the committtee's past protestations that "teams get bids, not conferences", and that they don't look at conference RPI.

But the reason it's really bad news is that it says they look at the stupid, meaningless, misleading, and easily manipuated overall RPI instead of the non-conference RPI. The Mountain West was 13th in OOC RPI. That's right -- 13th. They built up a good record on a horribly weak schedule, but then by playing each other, they climbed to 8th and got rewarded for it.

The lesson is clear... if you aren't a BCS league, play easy OOC schedules and the committee will treat your wins over each other like quality wins and you will sneak an extra team into the tourney.

clark1

Hey, FQ. We agree on something. The money conferences talk and ............, so on.
Get the NCAA to set guidelines for scheduling, home & away. Then lets compare apples and oranges. They'll never do it. Especially with idiots out there like Packer spouting off insane pronouncements.

ItsyBitsySpider

Right FQ, but the A-10 is not collectively smart enough to schedule wisely. I know Richmond will never play a schedule like GW's as long as Miller is our AD -- although realistically we probably should have this year.

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RhodeIslandRed

Free Quebec is right on the money. When everyone in your league goes 9-2 OOC, once you begin league play your SOS, and thus you