NCAA Tournament Bracketing Analysis

I took the 1-68 Master Seed List released by the NCAA and plugged it into a bracket, looking for what bracketing rules the committee followed, ignored, or just got wrong.  Below are my comments:

1. There was debate as to whether the committee would put the top 2 seed in the same region as Kentucky.  It is only 293 miles from Charlottesville to Cleveland, bus distance per NCAA rules.  However, they sent the Cavaliers to Syracuse (which requires flying) instead.  This shows that the committee clearly did not want to penalize the Wildcats with the top 2 seed.

2.  Maryland was ahead of Louisville on the S-Curve and is closer to Syracuse than Cleveland.  Therefore, they should have gone to the East Region and sent Louisville to the Midwest, which would have also been within driving distance for Louisville.  For some reason the committee sent Maryland to the Midwest and Louisville to the East though.  Perhaps they wanted to avoid a Kentucky-Louisville game again in the Sweet 16, but they are not supposed to look that far ahead for rematches.

3. There was some debate whether Wisconsin would go to Columbus or Omaha, but the committee went by straight mileage and sent them to Omaha.

4. Notre Dame’s pod was sent to Pittsburgh even though the second Columbus spot was open at the time.  This makes no sense at all to me.  They are both within driving distance, but Columbus is 120 miles closer to South Bend.  Worse yet, the team that got the Columbus spot was Maryland — which would have been closer to Pittsburgh!

5. North Carolina was also passed over for the second Columbus spot and sent to Jacksonville, which is 60 miles further away from Chapel Hill.

6. It is almost 200 miles further for Arkansas to go to Jacksonville as opposed to Columbus.  However, West Virginia, below the Razorbacks on the seed list, was given the 5 seed spot in Columbus, most likely because this is able to put one of the two teams on a bus instead of a plane.  I have no problem with this switch.

7. Another switch I did not understand on the 6 line.  Providence was sent to Columbus while Butler went to Pittsburgh.  It is closer for both teams to be in the opposite site and would not have violated any other rules on this line.  I am starting to suspect the committee needs a geography lesson on where Pittsburgh and Columbus are.

8. Oklahoma State could have been easily swapped on the 9 line with LSU, avoiding an Oregon-Okie State rematch from the 2013 tournament, which is supposed to be a consideration.  Apparently, this was ignored to keep Okie State in Omaha and closer to home.  I have no problem with this.

9. Davidson should have gone to Charlotte, which is in their backyard and was available.  However, the committee flipped them with Georgia, sending the Wildcats out to Seattle.  The logic may have been to avoid a home court disadvantage for Michigan State and Virginia, but the protected seed rules are only supposed to apply to the top 4 seeds in the Round of 64.

10.  Slotting BYU in was amazingly easy on the 11 line despite their bracketing requirements.  The committee lucked out there.

11. Eastern Washington was sent to Portland instead of Seattle which is slightly further.  I believe this was to avoid a team from the state of Washington playing in Seattle and have no problems with it given that as a 13 seed, their round of 64 opponent is supposed to be a protected seed.

12. On the 16 line, Coastal Carolina could have gone to Charlotte to play Duke, but was sent to Omaha instead.  This was also probably a conscious move to help protect Duke’s #1 seed form a semi-local team and shows me that the committee was doing some extra work to avoid any potential claim of a home court disadvantage by a top seed.  I have no problem with this switch either.

13. Finally, there was some concern that the committee would adjust the bracket because of travel issues with charter planes this year.  Clearly, that was not a factor for them at all.