Kentucky, Syracuse, UNC, Michigan State Earn #1 Seeds

Every year the so called experts debate who gets in, who was left out, and which teams got the proper seed.  While most would agree that this year’s committee may have gotten it wrong by not including Drexel, Mississippi State, and Washington, while selecting Iona, South Florida, and Texas to be part of the field, as a whole this year’s March Madness will be as tightly contested as any in recent years because of the overall amount of talent throughout the entire field.

You can check out the entire 68 team field here.

At the top, this year’s NCAA Tournament boasts having elite level teams like Kentucky, Syracuse, North Carolina, and Michigan State as #1 seeds.  Despite not winning their conference Tournaments, Kentucky, Cuse, and UNC all still earned a coveted #1 because of an outstanding body of work, while it was already predetermined that the winner of the Michigan State/Ohio State Big Ten Final would earn the final #1.

It was apparent that the selection committee was sending a message to all teams to schedule a tougher non-conference schedule in order to make the field as a few of the snubs like Drexel and Washington had subpar out of conference RPI ratings.  Committee chairman Jeff Hathaway even went as far as to single out Drexel, who won 19 consecutive games and had 27 wins overall, by comparing their 200+ RPI in the non-conference to Iona, who finished with a 44.

Other bubble teams left out included Miami, Northwestern, and Nevada, while Washington became the first team to win a regular-season title in a power conference(Pac-12) and miss the tournament altogether.

Check out the ESPN College Gameday crew breakdown the brackets: