March Madness 2014 VIDEO: First Look Event Update
The AP released a story Thursday that pretty much gives us a crash course/reminder on the rule changes made this last fall that will hopefully make the NCAA Tournament seeding more fair, among other things.
[Associated Press]
….Previously, the selection committee tried to keep schools from playing rematches before the regional finals, sometimes moving teams multiple seed lines in the process. [Selection Chairman Ron]Wellman said relaxing that policy allows the committee to honor their seeding, creating a fairer overall bracket.
“That first and foremost is important,” said Wellman, the athletic director at Wake Forest. “There have been years where we’ve had to drop a team or promote a team; there was even a year where teams dropped two seed lines. We don’t feel that’s appropriate.”
Under the new policy, teams that have played once could meet in the third round of the NCAA tournament, and teams that have played twice could meet in the Sweet 16. The committee will still try to avoid teams that have met three times from playing before the regional finals.
Another benefit is that the committee will have more latitude in assigning teams to sites closer to home, thereby easing the travel burden shared by schools and their fans.
“We spend so much time getting teams in order, setting them one through 68, and it’s not until the process is fully vetted that we begin the bracketing process,” Wellman said. “Now, we think we have much greater flexibility to honor the seed lines that we established.”
Overall this is great. We’ve seen obvious seeding snubs in the past and teams have to travel to opposite coasts to play opening round games. Hopefully these new ‘rules’ will balance things somewhat. It should be noted it will be a challenge to stick to them when you have a completely loaded conference, such as the Big Ten in 2014. OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and MSU are all ranked.
Although there has been increasing parity over the years and therefore some have urged the committee to consider further expanding the field, Wellman also stated there are no current plans to add to the field of 68 that’s been in place for four years.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him @JHelmuth or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
