College football and college basketball are not the same thing. You know this, but the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has affirmed as much by deciding to eschew a weekly show revealing updated seedings for the NCAA tournament.

In this story by Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Dan Gavitt — the NCAA’s senior vice president for men’s basketball championships — had this to say on why the basketball committee won’t follow the College Football Playoff committee:

“Because games are played once a week, and essentially on the weekends, the rhythm of a weekly ranking is much more tradition-bound in college football than it is in college basketball. In basketball, polls come out Monday morning and they can be outdated by Monday [night]. The frequency of games, the number of days, the fluidity there creates challenges around doing a show on a regular basis,” Gavitt said.

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Indeed, the changes which occur in the six weeks leading up to Selection Sunday are far more numerous than the changes which occur in the six weeks leading up to the announcement of the College Football Playoff field. The NCAA tournament includes 68 teams, the College Football Playoff only four. The volume of games each non-Saturday in college hoops provides constant change and tumult in a way football can’t match. These and other dynamics readily underscore why a weekly televised seed report in college basketball would be less workable than a weekly rankings show for college football.

Consider just one point: On the Wednesday of the week involving the major conference tournaments (which are mixed in with several one-bid conference tournaments), a large cluster of bubble teams are still alive in the race for an at-large NCAA tournament berth. Some of these teams are barely alive, but have a pulse. Some teams are on the negative side of the bubble but can play their way upward. Some teams are on the middle of the bubble and can punch their ticket with two wins. Some are on the right side of the bubble and just need to avoid a bad loss to get in. All these variables are in play on days (Wednesday-Thursday-Friday of Championship Week) which involve several dozen games apiece. Then realize that surprising automatic bids in conference tournaments change the at-large equation by reducing the number of available spots for the teams most squarely on the bubble.

This is all in the final half-week before Selection Sunday. A weekly rankings show would be pointless, and if you asked a room full of diehard college basketball fans about this, you’d probably get near-unanimous agreement: NO WEEKLY SHOW, PLEASE!

There will almost always be a debate on the margins when the brackets are revealed. Generally, one or two teams make news by getting in or getting left out. Last season’s one debate was “North Carolina State in, SMU out.” Out of 68 teams, one debatable selection represents a pretty good job by the committee in its most central task: selection.

Here’s why a weekly show wouldn’t work:

If a weekly show had been conducted over the course of February, SMU would have been well ahead of N.C. State on the bracket for much of the month, and still ahead by a slight margin heading into the conference tournaments. It was only when SMU lost to Houston in The American’s league tournament and N.C. State beat Syracuse in the ACC tournament quarterfinals the next day (Friday of Championship Week) that the Wolfpack vaulted past SMU to become the last team in the field. SMU was the first team out of the field. Several weekly shows would evaporate into the chaos of Championship Week, which would dramatically reshape the makeup of the tournament field. The mystery of Selection Sunday (the basketball version) is why it is so exciting. Prior revelations of mock brackets would take the air out of the balloon for college basketball fans.

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Finally, let’s add this note, something not to be seen as a minor or peripheral point: There are some things that should be done to improve the way a tournament bracket is created. Seeding can be debated forever, but bracketing is an issue which demands more and better vetting. Last year, the committee made a huge unforced error in its bracketing process… and it’s reasonable (though debatable) to claim that it affected the entire 2014 NCAA Tournament.

If you’re a No. 7 seed or some other seed outside 1-4, you are not supposed to be sent to a geographically favorable opening-round pod, and ideally not to a geographically favorable regional, either. In three of the four regions last year, seventh seeds were appropriately placed in non-geographical opening-round pods:

Texas (Midwest) went to Milwaukee.

New Mexico (South) went to St. Louis.

Oregon (West) went to Milwaukee.

The fourth No. 7 seed, though, was Connecticut. The Huskies not only received Buffalo as their nearby opening-round pod. UConn was placed in the East region, given a bracket that fed into New York for the regionals. The Huskies got out of Buffalo and had a huge homecourt advantage in Madison Square Garden for the East Regional against Iowa State (semifinals / Sweet 16) and Michigan State (final / Elite Eight).

As a point of comparison, Syracuse — rightly placed in Buffalo as a No. 3 (protected) seed — was slotted in the South Regional and a possible trip to Memphis had the Orange escaped the opening rounds… which they did not. Connecticut received a remarkable stroke of bracketing luck… a stroke of luck it did not earn with its seeding. Full credit to Kevin Ollie, Shabazz Napier, and Company, though: They parlayed their fortune into a dynamic championship run once they survived a shaky 7-10 game against Saint Joseph’s.

All the NCAA tournament selection process needs is a three-person committee — ideally, certified bracketologists (such as Joe Lunardi, the father of bracketology; Patrick Stevens of Syracuse.com, who nailed all 68 teams last year; and Jerry Palm of CBS Sports) — to vet and verify that all the bracketing principles have been reasonably adhered to. Highly questionable moves, if voted on 3-0 by this review committee, would need to be revised by the Selection Committee. There might not be such an issue in eight out of every nine years or so, but having independent people in the room to check and verify would seem to be a reasonable safeguard.

As long as that policy tweak can be added, Selection Sunday can deliver an improved product… without need for a weekly show few college basketball diehards would even want in the first place.

About Matt Zemek

Editor,
@TrojansWire
| CFB writer since 2001 |

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