There are some unusual oddities in the bracket this year and at least a couple of seemingly unfair pairings.
First off, the bracket is not as balanced as it usually is. That is measured by adding up the overall seed rankings of the top four teams in each region. Balance is defined as having the smallest and largest totals be no more than five apart.
The teams go in the bracket initially to their closest available regional location and are adjusted from there to create balance.
This season’s bracket has Kansas not only in the West Region instead of the East, which is about 100 miles closer to Kansas, but has that region with the toughest draw. The seeds of the top four teams, which includes the top 2-and 4-seeds, add up to 31 (3+5+10+13). That’s a pretty rough draw for a team that arguably should have been the overall No. 1 seed but was the No. 3 overall seed.
The East is the easiest region with the lowest 1- and 2-seeds. Their overall seed total is 37 (4+8+11+14).
Normally, the committee would make adjustments to create better balance, but they also like to adjust the No. 4 seeds to do that. The problem is that the East already has the lowest-seeded No. 4 seed it can have in Tennessee. UConn cannot be in the East because fellow Big East member Marquette is already there.
Switching Baylor and Kansas State on the No. 3 line would have solved the problem. That would have had three regions adding up to 35 and the West still at 31. But, the committee chose not to do that.
Had the committee chosen to put Kansas in the East instead, as it should have, a balanced bracket would have been more easily obtained by only shifting around the No. 4 seeds.
Then it would have looked like this:
South: Alabama, Arizona, Baylor, Indiana. 1+7+9+15=32West: Purdue, UCLA, Kansas St, UConn. 4+5+11+13=33Midwest: Houston, Texas, Xavier, Virginia. 2+6+12+16=36East: Kansas, Marquette, Gonzaga, Tennessee….
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/why-auburn-should-thank-the-ncaa-tournament-committee-and-other-seeds-that-may-seem-strange/
Author : Jerry Palm
Publish date : 2023-03-15 16:37:12
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