Selection Sunday is Here
Final Men's and Women's Bracketology
Selection Sunday is here…
The men's tournament bracket will be revealed at 6 p.m. ET on CBS.
The women's bracket will be revealed at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
For more on the men’s bracket, this viewing guide from Will Warren breaks down the bubble in-depth and where the top 4 seeds want to land by region.
Why is Bracketology so much fun?
It is a Choose Your Own Adventure book for college basketball fans.
As a bracketologist, you choose what metric you want to favor when filling out a bracket.1
Because of the use of these different metrics, each Selection Committee can favor the Metrics they find the most important to select teams in the field and place them into the field.
We did get some insight from the Men’s Selection Committee from NCAA Sr. VP Dan Gavitt2
Gavitt told CBS before the Big Ten semifinal game between Michigan and Maryland that the Selection Committee was considering road and neutral wins, Quad 2 wins are a “significant factor,” and resume metrics in terms of evaluation.
FOR THE MEN’S SELECTION COMMITTEE - IT IS 6 TEAMS FOR 2 SPOTS as Will Warren flagged in his post
I went back and forth and finally went with Xavier and Indiana over Texas, Boise State, North Carolina, and UC Irvine, but I see the arguments to include every one of them. Texas is the hardest team to leave out, and Gavitt’s comments regarding the Quad 2 wins seem like possible reasons to include Xavier and not Texas. I do always talk about conferences with so many teams near the bubble, in this case, Mountain West (3 or 4 teams) and SEC (4 to 5 teams), whether that helps or hurts the conference.
Note: I am interested to see the seeding for Drake, UC San Diego, Memphis, and VCU, who won their regular season and conference championship, making those leagues one-bid leagues even though good teams in their leagues like Bradley, UC Irvine, George Mason, Dayton, and North Texas would have been in the field or the bubble discussion if it was a 76 or 80 team field.
Women’s College Basketball Selection
6 teams will be making their debut in the Women’s NCAA Tournament after William & Mary (15-18) won the CAA Tournament as the 9th seed.
They are 6th team who will make their NCAA Tournament debut, joining Grand Canyon (WAC), UC San Diego (Big West), George Mason (A-10), FDU (NEC), and Arkansas State (Sun Belt). Arkansas State, UC San Diego, and George Mason also won their conference tournament despite not being the #1 seed.
IN THE WOMEN’S COLLEGE BB FIELD IT WILL BE 6 TEAMS FOR 2 SPOTS
Columbia, Princeton, Virginia Tech, Colorado, Saint Josephs’ and James Madison
Charlie Creme from ESPN gives the last two spots to Princeton Columbia, and the Ivy League, getting an Ivy Leaguerecord of three teams in the field. Megan Gauer from Her Hoop State put Virginia Tech in the field instead of Princeton and, like Creme, leaves three mid-major teams outside the field. x
I think James Madison deserves an at-large bid despite not having a Quad 1 win because their 5 losses are either to top 10 teams or in OT including their only Sun Belt Championship loss of the season.
Creme has JMU as a last Four Out including two other deserving mid-major teams Saint Joseph’s and UNLV.
Either way, both the men’s and women’s tournaments will see First Four Out likely, including two mid-major teams and 12+ teams from one of the power conferences (The men’s tournament will be the SEC, and the Women’s tournament will be the Big Ten). I do think this is the new normal with super conferences, so expansion to 72 or 76 seems smart to get more mid-major teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Gavitt is one of the NCAA Officials in the Selection Room to help make sure all bracketing principles and procedures are followed. As part of his job, he can help with historical perspective (other NCAA officials in the room could do the same) to the NCAA Selection Committee. For example in the case of Ohio State (17-15), they could say the last time a team two games above .500 was given an at-large berth was Georgia (16-14) in 2001 and provide details on 2001 Georgia team if needed.