NCAA Tournament seeding thoughts, ideas, discussion...

[dolamite]

My thought is this.....

 

From the committee's standpoint I think the biggest thing that hurt them this year was getting way too deep into the season as a whole part of the decision making process. From November to now, Florida could possibly be a 2 seed, but with how they finished the year was no where close to being one of the eight best teams. The thing that matters most about the tournament is getting hot at the right time and playing good in March. But, by virtue of resume teams that may have limped in down the stretch may still end up with high tournament seeds while teams that are red hot coming in may not move up as much as they should in terms of seeding. The hard part about this years field though is there is just so much that doesn't make sense, it was as if there was no set criteria on how teams were seeded. My season as a whole argument can make sense out of Florida being a two or Notre Dame being a two. It can also make sense of Kentucky and Louisville being fours instead of a two or three seed. BUT, what it can't explain is why North Carolina could still be a two and perhaps even UCONN. If the committee used the same approach to those as they did the same to justify the Florida and Notre Dame seeds, then it wouldn't seem like they would be deserving. Carolina had a lot of losses during the early part of the season, lost to Minnesota, Georgia Tech, Vandy, I mean there loses came from a variety of different leagues. UCONN got hot in Maui but idled through the rest of the year until they won the bEAST crown. Given that is the hardest league to win and doing it five straight days in a row, that deserves your team a two seed. BUT, if you took the season as a whole into consideration how could you possibly justify that the same way you can Florida or Notre Dame, you can't. So in otherwords, I just felt like the selection committee done what it wanted to and they really confused a lot of people in the process because the logic of it all just doesn't make sense.

 

 

I know this isn't what the decision process is supposed to be about, but in my opinion they need people on the committee who have a good understanding of what a good team is in March. The right rational for seeding in my opinion is to award the teams as they are at the end of the year with best getting the higher seeding. IMO Florida is not one of the eight best teams in the country, they are top 15, but you cannot say they are one of the eight best. By going by just the team they have right now and how they are playing they are very deserving of a three seed, or four at worst, but certainly not a two.

 

Then you have somebody like Virginia Tech and Colorado who play in big leagues get snubbed for UAB and VCU. I mean really who is the better of those four teams? On any given night a hoops team can lose but I want my money on the most talented every time and by far Tech and Colorado have better teams than VCU and UAB. Its supposed to be the 37 best teams get selected into the tournament. When they finally figure out how to get that 37 in the tournament then seed them right then they may be able to avoid all of this criticism. Until then though I think the selection committee is very deserving of all the criticism is taking and will take. There definitely could be some major tweaks for the better with these brackets but the bottom line is its a tournament and you have to win no matter what. But when just looking at the selection in depth there is a lot more they could do to improve the legitimacy of the field IMO.

[Randy Parker]

My suggestions:

 

- Rank and play. Have the teams ranked 1-68 and slot them in order from there. If I understand correctly they rank the teams, but they are concerned with conference affiliations, moving teams up and down 1 spot, etc. Just rank them and play. If two Big East teams are playing in the first round, what does it matter? No person has ever explained that to me.

 

- Don't worry about the pod. The pod system does not work out for everyone. What often happens is the committee gets too concerned with making sure a team is closer to home, they will place them in a bracket at the expense of someone else obtaining a higher seed. It is what I think happened in the Florida situation. The only way I see the pod system working is by expanding the field even more.

 

- Televise the selection meetings. Talk about must see television. PPV would never be the same. Will never happen for obvious reasons, but it would require more accountability.

 

Wholeheartedly agree on your 2nd & 3rd points, though neither of them will happen.

[formerkywrestler]

Just let Bilas do it all.

[mobaar]

I posed this in the selection Sunday thread too, but...

 

Just for fun. I used Ken Pomeroy and Jeff Sagarin to pick and seed the field. Just a straight average of the two rankings. Take the auto qualifiers, fill in at large teams based on KenPom/Sagarin rating and pure S-curve from there. Here's what I got:

 

East (#1 overall)

1 - OSU vs 16 - (UT San Antonio vs. Alabama St.)

8 - Missouri vs 9 - Clemson

5 - Florida vs 12 - Butler

4 - Utah St. vs 13 - Oakland

6 - Georgetown vs 11 - Richmond

3 - Kentucky vs 14 - Indiana St.

7 - Belmont vs 10 - Texas A&M

2 - Notre Dame vs 15 - St. Peter's

 

West (#4 overall)

1 - Pitt vs 16 - UNC Asheville

8 - St John's vs 9 - Temple

5 - Washington vs 12 - (New Mexico vs Colorado)

4 - Louisville vs 13 - Bucknell

6 - UNLV vs 11 - (Florida St. vs St. Mary's)

3 - Syracuse vs 14 - Woffard

7 - George Mason vs 10 - Xavier

2 - San Diego St. vs 15 - UC Santa Barbara

 

Southeast (#2 overall):

1 - Duke vs 16 - (Hampton vs Arkansas - Little Rock)

8 - Marquette vs 9 - Gonzaga

5 - WVU vs 12 - UCLA

4 - UConn vs 13 - Memphis

6 - Arizona vs 11 - Penn St.

3 - BYU vs 14 - Long Island

7 - Villanova vs 10 - Michigan St.

2 - Purdue vs 15 - Northern Colorado

 

Southwest (#3 overall):

1 - Kansas vs 16 - Boston U

8 - Vandy vs 9 - VT

5 - UC vs 12 - ODU

4 - UNC vs 13 - Princeton

6 - Illinois vs 11 - Maryland

3 - Wisconsin vs 14 - Morehead St.

7 - Kansas St. vs 10 - Michigan

2 - Texas vs 15 - Akron

[Alabama Larry]

Expand to 96 teams for the tourney like the BCS.

[5wide]

Televise the selection meetings. Talk about must see television. PPV would never be the same. Will never happen for obvious reasons, but it would require more accountability.

 

Great idea. How cool would that be?

 

It would be like C-SPAN for college hoops fans.

[bugatti]

Great idea. How cool would that be?

 

It would be like C-SPAN for college hoops fans.

It would be great watching the television and yelling at the tv when they are discussing certain team's merits and deficiencies.

[dolamite]

I posed this in the selection Sunday thread too, but...

 

Just for fun. I used Ken Pomeroy and Jeff Sagarin to pick and seed the field. Just a straight average of the two rankings. Take the auto qualifiers, fill in at large teams based on KenPom/Sagarin rating and pure S-curve from there. Here's what I got:

 

East (#1 overall)

1 - OSU vs 16 - (UT San Antonio vs. Alabama St.)

8 - Missouri vs 9 - Clemson

5 - Florida vs 12 - Butler

4 - Utah St. vs 13 - Oakland

6 - Georgetown vs 11 - Richmond

3 - Kentucky vs 14 - Indiana St.

7 - Belmont vs 10 - Texas A&M

2 - Notre Dame vs 15 - St. Peter's

 

West (#4 overall)

1 - Pitt vs 16 - UNC Asheville

8 - St John's vs 9 - Temple

5 - Washington vs 12 - (New Mexico vs Colorado)

4 - Louisville vs 13 - Bucknell

6 - UNLV vs 11 - (Florida St. vs St. Mary's)

3 - Syracuse vs 14 - Woffard

7 - George Mason vs 10 - Xavier

2 - San Diego St. vs 15 - UC Santa Barbara

 

Southeast (#2 overall):

1 - Duke vs 16 - (Hampton vs Arkansas - Little Rock)

8 - Marquette vs 9 - Gonzaga

5 - WVU vs 12 - UCLA

4 - UConn vs 13 - Memphis

6 - Arizona vs 11 - Penn St.

3 - BYU vs 14 - Long Island

7 - Villanova vs 10 - Michigan St.

2 - Purdue vs 15 - Northern Colorado

 

Southwest (#3 overall):

1 - Kansas vs 16 - Boston U

8 - Vandy vs 9 - VT

5 - UC vs 12 - ODU

4 - UNC vs 13 - Princeton

6 - Illinois vs 11 - Maryland

3 - Wisconsin vs 14 - Morehead St.

7 - Kansas St. vs 10 - Michigan

2 - Texas vs 15 - Akron

 

That actually looks pretty good, definitely a lot better than what it is.

[Zoot Soup]

After the selection is over, publish the S-Curve. Show me 1-68 how the teams were ranked so we maintain the integrity of the process.

[mobaar]

That actually looks pretty good, definitely a lot better than what it is.

 

And done by one person in 30 minutes.

[dolamite]

And done by one person in 30 minutes.

 

Well the main thing is you influenced it with Ken Pom and Sagarin ratings which basically put the teams almost right where they should be. I just wish all of the committee members would stick with the same criteria for putting teams in the tournament and where they place them, opposed to having ten totally different rationals.

[Randy Parker]

After the selection is over, publish the S-Curve. Show me 1-68 how the teams were ranked so we maintain the integrity of the process.

 

Another excellent idea.

 

I think BGP could put together some kind of a selection crew! :lol:

[Randy Parker]

Just let Bilas do it all.

 

Nice!

[Michael Corleone]

Did someone just use Integrity and the NCAA in the same sentence?

[Milfordflash]

I just read on KSR that Vegas has UK at 15 to 1 to win it all and FL is at 20 to 1. Also UK is 13.5 pt spread against Princeton.