NCAA Tournament Field is Set
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracket
My main takeaway is that the selection system is broken. Mid Major regular season champs are left out if they don’t also win their conference tournament. The regular season is essentially pointless. USF and Indiana State deserved to get in. Also, Michigan State getting in the tournament is an absolute joke.
Wow did not realize that 1999 run wasn't with Mark Few at the helm.
Indiana State not making it in just shows that the selection committee is more interested in putting in name brand major conference teams (after the high profile top-25 teams and auto bids get seeded).
As someone above said, two middling major conference teams playing against each other is a yawner, while interesting and good mid major teams vying against the “big boys” makes for a compelling game. Even casual fans tune into those. FAU’s run last season likely saw fans of college bball tuning in at a high clip to see if they could continue to slay the giants, much like Loyola Chicago in 2018.
A question if I may - and, I'm not being "smart aleky". The comments raised about NET ranking have merit. Now, on to my question.
Can you please name one thing the NCAA actually does correctly - right?
As for your point about Mid-Major "regular" season vs Tournament champs also getting a bid - IMO, has merit. The question is - clarity about the conference's auto-bid, which usually aligns with the conference Tourney champ.
March 18th, 2024 at 12:41 PM ^
Six (6) B1G teams in the field of 68. The questions are - which teams go the furthest and what's the conference's overall record. The six teams, seeding, and (Region) are:
Purdue - #1 (Midwest)
Illinois - #3 (East)
Wisconsin - #5 (South)
Nebraska - #8 (South)
Northwestern - #9 (East)
Michigan State - #9 (West)
March 18th, 2024 at 12:46 PM ^
0-6 would be perfectly fine with me.
Are we all Oakland fans now?