If Tourney Started Today Here’s What It Would Look Like

11 Feb, 2017

Villanova, Kansas, Baylor and Gonzaga would be the four No. 1 seeds if the NCAA tournament began today.

With one month until Selection Sunday — for the first time ever — the NCAA tournament selection committee revealed the top 16 seeds in an early version of its bracket Saturday.

North Carolina, Florida State, Louisville and Oregon occupied the No. 2 line. Kentucky, Arizona, Virginia and Florida were the No. 3s, and UCLA, Duke, West Virginia and Butler earned No. 4 seeds.

The Wisconsin Badgers, who are ranked No. 7 in the current AP Top 25, are a noticeable omission from the committee’s top 16 seeds.

The NCAA tournament selection committee annually convenes in February at NCAA headquarters at Indianapolis, where it orients new members to its voting procedures and software and works through an early version of the bracket. The 2016-17 season marks the first time it has published any portion of those bracket results prior to Selection Sunday.

Beyond generating discussion, the reveal was intended as a glimpse into the committee’s current thinking, and is not a projection of eventual seeds but treated as though Saturday was Selection Sunday, committee vice chair Bruce Rasmussen said this week.

“The data points we have are short,” committee chair Mark Hollis said Saturday. “There are many games to play. Creighton, Wisconsin, Purdue. Those teams are in the mix or everything we’re talking about. Cincinnati. We don’t have enough data points to make those lines of separation.

“This is an opportunity to get excited about the tournament,” Hollis said. “”Don’t buy your airline tickets based on this.”

ESPN

Image ESPNU twitter

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