NCAA men’s basketball selection committee will plant top four seeds for show
Saturday will present a college basketball first.
The Division I men’s basketball committee will provide a status report for the NCAA Tournament by unveiling the top four seeds in each of the four regions.
This glimpse is based on meetings by the committee this week and will provide some insight into the group’s thinking at the moment, but Vice-chairman Bruce Rasmussen, the Creighton athletic director, offered a cautionary piece of advice.
“It’s important to emphasize that every team in the country will play six or seven games apiece between Saturday and the end of the regular season,” Rasmussen said. “In fact, if you estimate 300 games will be played in the conference tournaments (and) there are roughly 1,350 games to be played between Saturday and the time the bracket will be revealed.”
We get it. Plenty can happen. But Saturday’s reveal should make fans of the Big 12 happy. Kansas and Baylor could be top seeds, along with Gonzaga and Villanova.
Just the top 16 teams will be announced on Saturday, on CBS at 11:30 a.m., leading into the broadcast of the Kentucky-Alabama game.
Predicting selection committee trends is a futile endeavor. When the 68-team field is announced on March 13, how will mid-majors fare?
Currently the season appears to favor major conferences when it comes at-large bids. Leagues like the Missouri Valley and Mountain West could wind up with one team in the field, leaving more room for middle-of-the-pack finishers in conferences like the Big 12, ACC and Big Ten.
Our projection has seven teams from the Big 12. Only the ACC with 10 teams has more.
But as Rasmussen suggested, the final stretch is just beginning.
NCAA Tournament field projection
Seed: West, East, Midwest, South
1: Gonzaga, Villanova, Kansas, Baylor
16: Weber State/UC Davis/Sam Houston State, Texas Southern, Mount St. Mary’s/NC Central
8: Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Dayton, VCU
9: Syracuse, Minnesota, California, Marquette
5: Butler, West Virginia, Creighton, Duke
12: Wichita State, Nevada, N.C.-Wilmington, Akron
4: Kentucky, Cincinnati, Purdue, UCLA
13: Vermont, Monmouth, New Mexico State, Belmont
3: Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida
14: Valparaiso, Princeton, Florida Gulf Coast, Arkansas State
6: Maryland, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s
11: TCU, Middle Tennessee, Tennessee/Indiana, Miami, Fla/Seton Hall
7: SMU, USC, Xavier, Northwestern
10: Clemson, Iowa State, Michigan State, Kansas State
2: Oregon, North Carolina, Florida State, Louisville
15: North Dakota State, Bucknell, Winthrop, Furman
This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 6:19 PM with the headline "NCAA men’s basketball selection committee will plant top four seeds for show."