Tennessee is a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament. The song is called "2.
The NCAA men's basketball selection committee has rendered its verdict for the tournament, generally hitting the mark yet leaving plenty of room for nitpicking among those of us who otherwise need to get a life.
The committee got the top seeds right. In recent years, what used to be a topsy-turvy undertaking has been very predictable. When Kentucky bowed out of the SEC tournament, it was obvious that they were the obvious picks. The Bears would have been better as a 2-seed in the South, but they are as a 1-seed for the second year in a row.
The brackets are open. You can fill out your brackets at the Tournament Challenge.
Pick the winner for each game of the NCAA tournament in 2022. Play a tournament.
Everyone is upset that the committee didn't make Tennessee a 1- or 2-seed. Most of the comparisons to the other 2-seeds are valid, even though the top line was never going to happen for the Vols. If I had voted my own ballot, I would have gone with the Vols. This is my 22nd year without a vote, and I believed the Vols would be a 3-seed. I have no problem with the Vols being placed behind 2nd-seeded Villanova, which beat them in November.
The committee got the teams right, too. Texas A&M and Wyoming were the ones I settled on because of their late run. Wyoming had a better season-long résumé and was more deserving. I should have stuck to my guns and dropped A&M. I don't have another team to push the Aggies in favor of yours truly, because it is another 67 out of 68 year for yours truly.
I don't think the Broncos are an 8-seed. It is difficult to win a four-bid league and get stuck in an 8/9 game. The Broncos were the only team I didn't seed exactly or within one line of their actual placement. I am not one to hold a grudge.
The days of major conference bias are almost over. The final at-large spot went to Wyoming, while Texas A&M did the same to Louisville. The last at-large selection in the pre-pandemic tournament was Belmont. This is good for the sport as a whole and for the interest in the early rounds. It is supported by the fact that the majors generally perform poorly.
There are three teams in the field that finished under.500 in conference play. As the Big 12 and SEC expand, this will increase as well. I am still in favor of a rule establishing certain minimum requirements for at-large eligibility, but am open to tweaking the strict Lunardi Rules of brackets past.
The committee avoided a longstanding trend of under-seeding the true mid-majors. When Saint Mary's is a 5-seed, Murray State is a 7-seed, San Francisco is a 10-seed, and Davidson is a 9-seed, it shows a higher regard for said programs than we have seen in the past.
The committee did not favor Texas over Virginia Tech. What would the tournament be like without double-digit winners in the first weekend?
I can't wait to see it. Happy hoops!
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