NCAA Tournament: How the Bracket is Built
By Alex Miller
Note: 13 seeds (51-54 on seed list) must be sent to same pod sites as the four, five, and twelve seeds. Available pods are Columbus(Maryland, West Virginia, Buffalo), Jacksonville(UNC, Arkansas, Wofford), Seattle(Louisville, Northern Iowa, Wyoming), and Portland (Georgetown,Utah, SF Austin).
51. Valparaiso – Sent to closest pod (Columbus) which feeds into the Cleveland region
52. Harvard – Sent to closest remaining pod (Jacksonville) which feeds into the Los Angeles region
53. Eastern Washington – Could be sent to Seattle or Portland. Seattle would probably be more of a home-crowd disadvantage for the opposition so they were sent to Portland which feeds into the Houston region.
54. UC Irvine – Sent to last remaining region (Seattle) which feeds into the Syracuse region)
Note: 14 seeds (55-58 on seed list) must be sent to same pod sites as the three, six, and eleven seeds. Available pods are Louisville(Iowa State, SMU, UCLA), Jacksonville(Baylor, Xavier, BYU/Ole Miss), Columbus(Oklahoma, Providence, Boise St/Dayton), and Pittsburgh(Notre Dame, Butler, Texas).
55. Georgia State – Sent to closest pod (Jacksonville) which feeds into the Los Angeles region.
56. Northeastern – Sent to closest pod (Pittsburgh) which feeds into the Cleveland region.
57. UAB – Sent to closest pod (Louisville) which feeds into the Houston region.
58. Albany – Sent to remaining pod (Columbus) which feeds into the Syracuse region.
Note: 15 seeds (59-62 on seed list) must be sent to same pod sites as the two, seven, and ten seeds. Available pods are Portland(Arizona, VCU, Ohio State), Seattle(Gonzaga, Iowa, Davison), Charlotte(Virginia, Michigan State, Georgia), and Omaha(Kansas, Wichita St., Indiana)
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59. New Mexico State – Sent to closest pod (Omaha) which feeds into the Cleveland region.
60. Belmont – Sent to closest pod (Charlotte) which feeds into the Syracuse region.
61. Texas Southern – Sent to the closest pod remaining (Portland) which feeds into the Los Angeles region
62. North Dakota State – Sent to the last remaining pod (Seattle) which feeds into the Houston region.
Note: 16 seeds (63-68 on seed list) must be sent to same pod sites as the one, eight, and nine seeds. Available pods are Charlotte(Duke, San Diego St., St. John’s), Louisville(Kentucky, Cincinnati, Purdue), Omaha(Wisconsin, Oregon, Oklahoma St.), and Pittsburgh(Villanova, NC St., LSU). The last 4 teams in the field are sent to Dayton. As was the same with the last 4 at-large teams, one of the First Four games must be played on Tuesday night, so the pod the winner is sent to must play games on Thursday/Saturday. The other First Four game must be played on Wednesday with the winner advancing to a pod with games on Friday/Sunday. Again, the First Four participants are usually placed first to minimize their travel
63. Lafayette – sent to closest remaining pod (Pittsburgh) which feeds into the Syracuse region
64. Coastal Carolina – Sent to last remaining pod (Omaha) which feeds into the Los Angeles region.
65./66. North Florida/Robert Morris – The committee could have opted to send the First Four teams to the Omaha/Pittsburgh sites, but opted for the Louisville/Charlotte pods instead as they are closer to Dayton. This is one of those time where the committee could have chosen to make a storyline game, but didn’t. Assuming Robert Morris wins, we could have seen a rematch with Kentucky of a game from the NIT a few years ago, where Robert Morris upset Kentucky. Instead they sent the higher seeded team to face the lower seeded Duke in the Charlotte pod.
67./68. Manhattan/Hampton – Sent to the Louisville pod which feeds into the Cleveland region.
I hope this gave a good impression of how the committee puts together the bracket every year, and looking at it this way, it’s easy to see the committee doesn’t try to put together marquee matchups like Kansas/Wichita St for the sake of ratings. It just happened to work out like that this year.