Thursday night was the first night that all staff members of Hoops HD met via Zoom conference call to discuss the formation of the 2021 NCAA Tournament Field. Prior to our meetings, every member of the Committee submitted two different lists to our chairman Chad Sherwood – the first list was a list of up to 37 teams that were, in the eyes of each Committee member, a sure-fire tournament team no matter what. (Keep in mind that there are 37 at-large teams this season only since the Ivy League was shut down.) The second list was an Under Consideration list of other teams to be considered for the field.
There were 30 teams that were on all but two of the Committee members’ NCAA first ballot list and were immediately added to the NCAA Tournament field. There were 30 other teams that were added to the Under Consideration board in addition to the regular season champions – teams needed to receive at least three votes from the panel to be added Under Consideration.
And, the initial results:
Our first formal business was to name the 2021 Centenary and Stallings Award winners – Denver won their first Centenary Award as the worst team in Division 1 this season; Iowa State won their first Stallings Award as the worst Power 5 (plus Big East) team this season. After these pleasantries were taken care of, the Committee began scrubbing teams off the Under Consideration board – the only regular season conference award winners that remained were Toledo, Belmont and UC-Santa Barbara. With Duke shutting down the rest of the season because of COVID-19 issues, they were also moved off of the Under Consideration board.
The next major part of tonight’s meeting was to begin the process of selecting teams to fill the remaining seven at-large spots in addition to an additional pair of at-large spots that were guaranteed to open out of the Big 12 and the ACC conferences. Each Committee member selected eight teams from the Under Consideration board and submitted their teams to Chad – in turn, Chad revealed that the top eight vote-getters were Rutgers, Maryland, UConn, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Wichita State, VCU and St. Bonaventure. The next step was to rank these teams 1 through 8; the top four vote-getters were added in the first wave of voting Rutgers, UConn, North Carolina and Georgia Tech were subsequently added to the field.
The next step was for each Committee member to submit eight more teams from the Under Consideration board; the top four vote-getters (UCLA, Michigan State, Drake and Colorado State) were added to the four carryovers from the previous round. After these teams were ranked 1 through 8, the top four vote-getters that were added to the at-large field were Maryland, St. Bonaventure, Michigan State and Wichita State. Since VCU was a carryover for two straight rounds, they were added back to the Under Consideration board; UCLA, Drake and Colorado State remained as carryovers (listed in bold on the Under Consideration board) for any other at-large spots that are guaranteed to open up for the remainder of Championship Week. After our meeting concluded, a third at-large spot opened up since the Big Ten conference only had teams remaining that were already in the field thanks to Wisconsin’s win over Penn State.
Tomorrow night, our Committee will begin the task of seeding the top eight lines of the NCAA Tournament field and may also fill any remaining at-large spots that are guaranteed to open up. Teams highlighted in orange on the Under Consideration board still have games remaining to play and can improve their profiles; teams not highlighted have all completed their regular seasons/conference tournaments.
COMMISH EDIT: Due to a minor copying error, Oklahoma State was not listed on the first Board. They have been added back in (they were voted in on the first ballot), meaning there will be one less at-large spot to fill on Friday. The board was also tweaked to reflect 31 automatic bids and 37 at-large bids for this year only.