SOUTH | SOUTH | EAST | EAST | MIDWEST | MIDWEST | WEST | WEST | |
Seed | Team | PWB Seed | Team | PWB Seed | Team | PWB Seed | Team | PWB Seed |
1 | Auburn | 1 (3) | Duke* | 1 (2) | Houston* | 1 (4) | Florida* | 1 (1) |
2 | Michigan St | 2 (7) | Alabama | 2 (5) | Tennessee | 2 (6) | St. John's* | 2 (8) |
3 | Iowa State | 3 (12) | Wisconsin | 3 (12) | Kentucky | 4 (15) | Texas Tech | 3 (9) |
4 | Texas A&M | 5 (17) | Arizona | 4 (16) | Purdue | 6 (22) | Maryland | 3 (10) |
5 | Michigan* | 6 (21) | Oregon | 8 (30) | Clemson | 5 (19) | Memphis | 11 (43) |
6 | Mississippi | 6 (24) | BYU | 5 (20) | Illinois | 6 (23) | Missouri | 4 (14) |
7 | Marquette | 8 (31) | St. Mary's | 7 (26) | UCLA | 7 (27) | Kansas | 7 (28) |
8 | Louisville | 5 (18) | Miss St. | 7 (25) | Gonzaga* | 4 (13) | UConn | 9 (34) |
9 | Creighton | 10 (38) | Baylor | 8 (32) | Georgia | 8 (29) | Oklahoma | 9 (33) |
10 | New Mexico | 9 (36) | Vanderbilt | PI (46) | Utah St. | out (52) | Arkansas | 10 (40) |
11 | N. Carolina | 10 (39) | VCU* | 10 (37) | Xavier | 11 (42) | Drake* | 12 (54) |
12 | UC San Diego* | 9 (35) | Liberty* | 12 (59) | McNeese* | 13 (67) | Colorado St.* | 11 (41) |
*denotes automatic qualifier
I had Ohio State as the #44 team - and deserving of an invite if all that matters is computer ratings.
The NCAA made it pretty clear that logic was not going to be a deciding factor - that KenPom would be trusted instead of logic.
I think my numbers are better than KenPom's and I would never rely strictly on my numbers when selecting the field.
The biases in Ken Pom, Bart Torvik (or any similar system, including mine) are well known and they favor mediocre teams from conferences that run up the score in the non-conference.
That is the definition of the SEC's approach.
But I would never take a team that was 6-12 in its conference. Never. Its probably time to go back to 64 teams, like rational human beings.
But any rational person also knows that a team with a 6-12 record in conference play is not a good team and has no claim whatsoever to the national championship.
For what its worth, I had North Carolina in the field at #39.
Ohio State followed by Texas (#45), Vanderbilt and San Diego State should have been the play-in teams (If you have to have play-in games).
Utah State at #52 was the only team outside of my rankings to receive a bid - at Ohio State's expense.
But, thats only if you are foolish enough to believe that wins and losses don't count.
Lets toss Oklahoma and Texas for being 6-12. In no universe should they be in the tournament field.
Why do we need play in games again? Okay, sure let the extra 16 seeds play in. But nobody else.
There. Problem solved.
It is pretty shocking that Gonzaga was given an 8 seed when they probably deserved a 4. That only happens to the lesser conferences. It is essentially fraud.
Obviously, Gonzaga took offense (justifiably so) and annihilated Georgia.
Oregon, on the other hand, deserved an 8 and got a 5 seed. Hard to figure that one out - unless there were bribes involved.