What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

[Matt Trump]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

Untrue...the Pac 10 is the toughest conference in America....Just ask 3/4th of ESPN.

Interesting. Most people around the nation have said the Pac-10 has been the toughest conference this year. Imagine if they were on ESPN or had a better tv deal in the first place.

[jman2004]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

Normally I'm a huge conspiracy theorist about stuff like this too, but look at how many "major" conference match-ups there are in the first round too.

You're going to have a lot of BCS vs. BCS matchups when 35 of the 65 tournament teams come from the 6 BCS conferences. Of the remaining 30 non-BCS teams, most are going to be lower ranked auto-bids.

[clenz]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

This from Tim Keown from ESPN.com


On second thought, this can't be a total coincidence, can it?: Butler, George Mason and St. Joseph's -- three possible sleeper Sweet 16 teams -- were thrown into the same bracket.

For the rest of the article follow the link. It is actually pretty funny.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=keown/080319&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

[Panther Alum 83]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

Tim Keown article: "You know they spent a few hours making sure this wouldn't become a second-round embarrassment to the committee: Mount Saint Mary's and Saint Mary's can't meet until the finals."

[Newsbreaker]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

IIRC, the match-ups are computer generated. The committee assigns seeds and chooses the teams, and the computer places teams into the "pods" to get some teams and higher seeds closer to home.

[SteinPizza]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

IIRC, the match-ups are computer generated. The committee assigns seeds and chooses the teams, and the computer places teams into the "pods" to get some teams and higher seeds closer to home.

News, this makes a lot of sense. Since the committee's job would be very labor intense, the computer route of determing the final schedule would take many staff/hours away from mundane scheduling so they can concentrate on the resumes of prospective participants. If true, this also blows a hole in the conspiracy theory arguement.

Curious, is there somewhere this factoid referenced? Someone high on Kool Aid is bound to challenge it.

[jman2004]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

I'd like to see this somewhere. I haven't heard that before. I do trust News though . . . I just can't believe it until I see it. I know I've seen selection committee members talking on tv about particular matchups before.

[clenz]

Re: What are the odds for that many mid-major matchups in the NCAA first round?

I'd like to see this somewhere. I haven't heard that before. I do trust News though . . . I just can't believe it until I see it. I know I've seen selection committee members talking on tv about particular matchups before.

I don' tknow how much this answers your question, but it does mention the MVC being the most snubbed conference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_Sunday