Rec’in on…Enough of the NCAA Tournament Whining

Enough! Enough of whining about the womens basketball NCAA Tournament seedings. Given the methods used by the selection committee, it’s a guarantee that not everyone is going to be happy. This year, there have been two issues: that Rutgers and Uconn were placed in the same region, and which school “deserved” the final #1 seed.

A major reason why I did my

Enough! Enough of whining about the womens basketball NCAA Tournament seedings. Given the methods used by the selection committee, it’s a guarantee that not everyone is going to be happy. This year, there have been two issues: that Rutgers and Uconn were placed in the same region, and which school “deserved” the final #1 seed.

A major reason why I did my Ranking Project a couple of years ago was to address these sorts of inequities. As much as possible, I feel, you should take humans out of the process. Sure, some adjustments might have to be made based on end-of-season issues, but for the most part the seedings should be based on performance.

I also suggested that there should be tiered seedings. Once the ranks of the teams in the tourney are determined, then you split them up into tiers: Tier I: Seeds 1-4; Tier II: 5-8; Tier III(a): 9-12; Tier III(b): 13-16; Tier IV: 17-32; and Tier V 33-64. Within each whole tier (Tiers III(a) and III(b) count as one tier for this purpose), you randomly sort the teams. You then schedule the games as usual based on position on the resulting tree…position 1 vs position 64, 2 vs 63, etc. The games for the first two rounds are played on the home courts of the Tier I, II, and III teams, after that it’s regional as now.

The reason I suggest this is to do away with this political “S-curve” nonsense. Mine is codified. While it ensures that upper seeds get some reward by playing seeds ranked lower, it eliminates what I think of as “coronation” runs where a #1 seed always gets the easiest possible opponent at every round. A side benefit for weaker teams is that they can get a good combination to allow you to not always have to play the #1 or #2 seeds every time you make the field. It also rewards the better teams by allowing them to play on their home court for the first rounds. After that…if your happen to be placed in a position to play on your home court in a later round…well, that just random luck–no politics.

Using something like my method, you eliminate the suspicions that the Rutgers vs Uconn regional (or other Rutgers vs high seed regionals, if you go by C. Vivian Stringer’s implications) are politically motivated.

So, what about that last #1 slot this year? Did Maryland deserve it? While I’m as staunch a supporter of Maryland as anyone I’ve ever met, based on how they played against lesser opponents through much of the year despite their wins, I’d have to say no. I wasn’t expecting it. On the other hand, I think they very much deserved the #1 seed in 2006, the year they won the National Championship — which suggests I was right and the committee was wrong. (Being impartial, though, my own seeding program says that they didn’t.) Regardless, this year there were several schools that could have slipped into that final #1 slot. Since the regional finals pretty much end up being #1s vs #2s, it shows that it really doesn’t much matter. It’s an honor, to be sure. If you or your supporters think you deserve the slot, it definitely seems like a slap in the face when you don’t get it. But when push comes to shove, you still have to play the games. Number 2 seeds win a lot of the championships. Maybe teams should be whining when they don’t get a 2 seeding.

Overall, I think the commentators need to stop whining. It’s almost as annoying as that VW commercial where the guy makes the car he just bought honk whenever a couple approaches it (and why does no one pity all the other people in the showroom who have to listen to this ruckus). I also think the coaches need to stop whining. Obviously it doesn’t do any good. If you really want to change things, then change things…change the system. Otherwise, it’s going to keep happening. And I promise if y’all stop whining, then I’ll stop whining about it in turn.