The NCAA Tournament field is set. The biggest criticism I have for the selection committee is not taking the conference tournaments seriously. If they did, the seedings would reflect that. This year showed that regardless of what happens in the conference tournament, you can be saved by what you did in the regular season.
It’s why there were several teams that were overseeded and probably more that were underseeded as a result. Most of the smaller conference teams were seeded appropriately as the No. 12 seed and lower are reserved for them.
But the rest of the field, some teams I’m scratching my head on why they were given the benefit of the doubt to a conference foe that beat them in the conference tournament. So let’s dive right into the teams that were seeded too high and too low in this year’s NCAA Tournament field.
3 teams seeded way too low in the NCAA Tournament bracket
3) Michigan Wolverines
Congratulations Michigan, the reward for arguably the best one-season turnaround from the bottomfeeders of the Big Ten to the kings of the tournament is a No. 5 seed. North Carolina was able to sneak into the field, yet Michigan didn't get rewarded with a better seed.
The Wolverines got through the Big Ten Tournament and won it all as the No. 3 seed, knocking down Maryland and Wisconsin, who beat Michigan State. Michigan State being a No. 2 seed, despite missing the Big Ten tournament championship game is ironic.
The fact that Wisconsin lost in the championship game and is still ranked higher than Michigan is a problem. I guess the conference tournament really doesn’t mean much. It shows how lazy the selection committee is getting when deciding where to seed teams.
2) Louisville Cardinals
Like Michigan, Louisville turned things around in one year, going from winning less than 10 games to being the No. 2 team in the ACC. The selection committee felt that was only worth a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. As if that wasn’t punishment enough, they have to beat Creighton and most likely Auburn to get out of the first weekend.
A No. 8 seed just feels too low for a team that had such a strong season. I get the ACC wasn’t that strong this year and doesn’t have the strength of conference opponents it usually does. But considering what Louisville did, for them to be ranked just two seeds higher than Vanderbilt, who didn’t even have a winning conference record is puzzling.
1) Creighton Blue Jays
Another team that ends up being a victim of the selection committee is the Creighton Blue Jays. I guess reaching the Big East championship game and beating the defending NCAA champs in the tournament isn’t enough to warrant a higher seed than them.
Creighton was handed a No. 9 seed, while UConn was given a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year. It’s odd because the more I look at the bracket, the more I realize the conference tournament really doesn’t mean anything.
I get the regular season is the biggest tell of how good a team is, but you should be rewarded for reaching the conference championship game. Not punished for not winning it all.
3 teams seeded way too high in the NCAA Tournament bracket
3) Vanderbilt Commodores
Vanderbilt was the fifth worst team in the SEC, had a losing conference record and didn’t win a single game in the SEC Tournament, losing to the third worst team in the first round, yet they were handed a No. 10 seed in the field of 68.
The SEC bias is unnerving. At best, Vanderbilt, which was a bubble team, should have been given a play-in game. They didn’t do much of anything to prove they deserve a spot over a mid-major team that had a phenomenal season.
While they did beat Tennessee earlier in the year, the three game stretch of beating Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Missouri doesn’t carry much weight when none of those teams made it past the conference tournament quarterfinals. Then again, the selection committee made it clear the conference tournament results really don’t mean much.
2) Purdue Boilermakers
I think it’s criminal Michigan beat both Purdue and Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament to eventually win a Big Ten championship, only to be seeded lower than both of them. That, to me, makes no sense.
Purdue, while starting the season hot, tapered off toward the end of the year. They finished as the fifth best team in the conference, but sputtered the last month and a half of the year.
Since losing to Michigan, the Boilermakers won three of their last nine games, including the Big Ten Tournament. Not sure why that earns them a No. 4 seed, the selection committee sees something very few people do.
1) Texas A&M Aggies
I think before the SEC Tournament started, I would agree that Texas A&M should be a No. 4 seed. But they lost in their first game of the SEC Tournament to a bubble team. I just don’t see why they deserve to have a higher seed than a team like Michigan, which won its conference tournament or even Memphis.
The Ivy League is good to pull off a March Madness upset and one could be brewing here. I think Texas A&M was mis-seeded and an early exit from the tournament is a real possibility. Despite beating Auburn at the end of the season, the Aggies lost five of the final seven games.
I don’t know if they’re too much lower than a No. 4 seed, but when you look at some of the other teams ranked lower than them, you could certainly make the argument that the Aggies got the benefit of the SEC bias.