(02-13-2017 01:47 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(02-12-2017 12:21 PM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  Why is WV in the west & UCLA in the east? UCLA couldn't play Oregon until the Elite, if then.

The committee wants to avoid putting two top-4 seeds from the same conference in the same region. The ACC had five top-4 seeds in this "bracket preview", so two of them had to be placed in the same region.

So you send 2 top 4 seeds across the country just so that they couldn't play another conference top 4 seed until the Final 4? They could still play another conference team before then. I would agree with it if it meant a possible Sweet 16 matchup but not in this case. You have to think of team & fan travel. I don't agree with this rule.

(02-15-2017 10:30 AM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  You have to think of team & fan travel. I don't agree with this rule.

Unless you are on the one-line, no you don't. It's supposed to protect and consider them above all, with those below seeing diminishing returns.

All things considered, it's not like any big favors are done for those in the 15 and 16-lines, and those schools usually run on shoestring budgets.

Seeding, with the protection in mind, kind of skews the process a bit. Like, if Gonzaga is the one-seed in the west, and that first game is in San Jose, you might not be seeing a northern California school from Big West or Big Sky on that 16-line, even if the ranking deserves it, and, technically, the game isn't played on that 16-seed's home court (although, who cares about that rule, now that Dayton's played a game on their own court). And forget about it if by some fluke, that's a WCC team as an AQ bid thief in that spot and rank (sorry Santa Clara and Pacific). The geographic advantage still exists for the the lower seed, and that's supposed to be avoided.