The brackets have been revealed and the bickering has begun.
Not over who will reach the Final Four of the men’s NCAA tournament, but over how the selection committee justified the way it built its bracket of 68 teams on Selection Sunday.
While there were plenty of correct calls — Alabama as No. 1 overall seed, UCLA earning the No. 2 in the West and Pitt making the big dance —there were several baffling decisions out of the NCAA’s HQ in Indianapolis.
Let’s run through the five most-egregious calls the selection committee made and try to make sense of them.
THE BRACKETS ARE BACK! The USA TODAY Sports Bracket Challenge is back! $1 MILLION grand prize for a perfect bracket, $25,000 prize for top bracket. Free to enter, 21+. Terms apply, void where prohibited by law. See Official Rules. Play now!
Kansas Jayhawks seeded in the West Region
"I do not see the case Houston over Kansas on the overall seed line."
—@SethDavisHoops pic.twitter.com/o08NvM1ykZ
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 12, 2023
OK, I lied. This one makes absolutely no sense, and in fact, becomes even more head-scratching when you hear the NCAA’s opinion on the matter.
Kansas played the strongest schedule in the country with the most Quad 1 wins (17) of any team in the entire bracket. That’s a metric the committee came up with to help sort through situations exactly like these when the teams at the top are almost indistinguishable.
So there was quite the confusion when the Jayhawks didn’t get placed in a Midwest bracket that would’ve potentially sent them to Kansas City for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. Instead the committee gave that slot to Houston and put Kansas in the West, where it’ll play in Las Vegas should the defending champions advance past the first weekend.
Even the CBS broadcast wasn’t sure what happened.
The NCAA’s reasoning? Houston didn’t get blown out in its losses while playing a significantly weaker schedule. And apparently Quad 2 wins and Quad 1 wins now mean the same thing.
Here’s @SethDavisHoops asking NCAA Selection Committee Chairman Chris Reynolds why Houston came in as the higher No. 1 seed over Kansas, taking away the chance for KU to play in KC… pic.twitter.com/aef5MnCVEu
— Ben Heisler (@bennyheis) March 12, 2023
There was also one more reason the committee held Kansas back: concerns over the health of head coach Bill Self, who was discharged from a Kansas City hospital on Sunday after undergoing a heart procedure. He is expected to coach in the NCAA tournament.
It seems unfair to disregard what a team did on the court over a health scare for their head coach. Especially when the school continues to say Self will make a full recovery and return to the sidelines.
The logic by the NCAA here seems incredibly hard to parse anyway you look at it.
Texas A&M a 7 seed in the Midwest
No respect for the SEC tournament runner-ups.
Texas A&M had been one of the stronger teams towards the end of the year, picking up victories over No. 2 Alabama, No. 11 Tennessee and twice knocking off Arkansas.
All of that hard work and now the Aggies will have to fight their way through the Midwest as a No. 7 seed (No. 25 overall), just ahead of Michigan State and Missouri.
Not only does Texas A&M draw a pesky No. 10 Penn State team that nearly upset No. 1 seed Purdue in the Big Ten tournament championship on Sunday, but should the Aggies advance they’ll likely face long-time rival Texas as a No. 2 seed.
That’s just a brutal draw for an SEC team that deserved much better.
Duke a No. 5 seed in the East
The selection committee didn’t seem to think too much of Duke’s late-season surge, either. Nor an ACC tournament title over a Virginia team that defeated the Blue Devils earlier this year.
Duke won nine games to close out the regular season including victories over No. 14 Miami and No. 13 UVA. Now Jon Scheyer’s team will have to face a 12-seed in Oral Roberts and scoring machine Max Abmas in the first round of the East Region in what’s sure to become a popular upset pick.
Should Duke advance, it’ll likely face an incredibly resilient Tennessee team that has given the SEC fits.
The Blue Devils, actually, maybe deserved better.
UNC included in the First Four Out
Does it matter if you’re considered the first loser?
Maybe not, but that doesn’t explain how UNC was so close to reaching the NCAA tournament after such a dreadful season. Remember, this is a team that was named preseason No. 1 in the AP poll and almost immediately fell on its face.
North Carolina’s best wins came against No. 25 Ohio State (who didn’t make the tournament) and No. 6 Virginia, who smacked the Tar Heels right back in the ACC tournament. UNC went 20-13 with losses to six ranked teams.
It didn’t deserve to be anywhere near the NCAA tournament and has since declined an invitation to the NIT.
The sooner North Carolina forgets about this season the better. Apparently the committee didn’t think it was so bad.
Rutgers and Oklahoma State Snubbed
Here’s so much-needed context: KenPom has UNC ranked No. 47.
Rutgers is ranked No. 35. Oklahoma is ranked No. 38. Neither made the tournament. No. 49 Mississippi State, No. 55 N.C. State and No. 77 Pitt did. In fact, 11 teams received at-large bids over the Scarlet Knights and Cowboys.
And in the case of Oklahoma State, they played in the toughest conference in college hoops and picked up ranked wins against No. 15 TCU and two against No. 12 Iowa State — both tournament teams.
The Power 5 typically doesn’t get much sympathy during March but these were two misses that absolutely felt wrong.
