The bracket for the NCAA Tournament was revealed on Selection Sunday 2017.
The Selection Committee unveiled the bracket for the 2017 NCAA Tournament on Sunday, thus beginning the mayhem and madness college basketball brings in March.
Related Story: Villanova, Kansas, North Carolina, Gonzaga earn one seeds
The tournament commences on Tuesday with the First Four. Mount St Mary’s and New Orleans fight for a 16 seed on March 14, and Kansas State and Wake Forest meet for an 11-seed later that night. On Wednesday, North Carolina Central faces UC-Davis for a 16-seed before USC and Providence try for an 11-seed.
The Round of 64 begins this Thursday and ends on Friday night. The Round of 32 lasts the whole weekend in a two-day affair as well.
Heres your 2017 NCAA Tournament Bracket. pic.twitter.com/A8uCxn1cRD
— D&D Sports Network (@DavidandDarryl) March 12, 2017
The one seeds in this year’s tournament are: Villanova (East), Gonzaga (West), Kansas (Midwest), and North Carolina (South). Duke and Arizona, both conference tournament winners of their respective conferences, earned two seeds, despite having strong arguments for one seeds. The other two seeds are Louisville (Midwest) and Kentucky (South).
The south region is regarded as the toughest region in the bracket. Along with UNC, the South features No. 2 Kentucky, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 Butler. Needless to say, upsets look very unlikely in the bottom left portion of the bracket.
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Per usual, several schools were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament. Most notably this year was Syracuse. While I don’t believe Syracuse was deserving for a tournament bid, many thought Syracuse’s three top-10 wins and 10 ACC wins would propel them into the bracket. However, Syracuse only won twice away from the Carrier Dome all season, had an RPI of 84 and suffered losses to Boston College, St. John’s, Georgetown, UConn, and Pitt.
Illinois State was another team left out of the field of 68. The Redbirds finished the season at 27-6 and went 17-1 in the Missouri Valley. ISU lacked noteworthy wins and had non-conference losses to Tulsa and Murray State.
Other significant snubs were Illinois, Iowa, and Cal, among others.
The media had issues within the bracket as well. It started with the third team called on Selection Sunday in Wisconsin. The Badgers earned a No. 8 seed in the East region, despite finishing 25-9 and making a run to the Big Ten championship game.
In the West, the Vanderbilt Commodores somehow pulled a nine seed, even though many believed the Commodores didn’t deserve to be higher than a 10. Vanderbilt finished with 15 losses on the season, the most an at-large team has ever had.
The 29-5 Pac-12 regular season title winners (shared) and conference tournament runner-up Oregon Ducks only received a three seed in the Midwest region. This surprise is believed to be due to the injury of senior Chris Boucher (11.8 points, 6.1 rebounds), who will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
Next: Which top seed has the easiest road to the Final Four?
Despite the annual controversy with Selection Sunday, college basketball is in for yet another emotional, stunning and fantastic act of March Madness, all starting this week.