[Cracked Sidewalks] Scrubbing the Top-16 and Beyond

[brewcity77]

Today we dig deep on the top-4 seed lines, which should be one of the first things settled by the Selection Committee. We have a new top overall seed after the recent scrub, and a minor conspiracy theory that may determine the final 1-seed. In addition to scrubbing the protected lines, we take a quick look at the teams on the bubble and why they landed inside or out on a case-by-case basis. We also have a new S-Curve and bracket.

https://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2023/03/scrubbing-top-16-and-beyond.html

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Today we dig deep on the top-4 seed lines, which should be one of the first things settled by the Selection Committee. We have a new top overall seed after the recent scrub, and a minor conspiracy theory that may determine the final 1-seed. In addition to scrubbing the protected lines, we take a quick look at the teams on the bubble and why they landed inside or out on a case-by-case basis. We also have a new S-Curve and bracket.

https://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2023/03/scrubbing-top-16-and-beyond.html

Would the committee allow us and Mississippi State to be in the same pod? I thought that was frowned upon.

[brewcity77]

Would the committee allow us and Mississippi State to be in the same pod? I thought that was frowned upon.

Yes, non-con teams that played in the regular season are only prevented from playing again in the first round. For conference, they try to avoid conference foes playing each other in the first round, conference foes that played twice from meeting before the Sweet 16, and conference foes that met three times from meeting before the Elite 8.

Here was my thought process on placing the 11s:

• Nevada/NC State had to go to Orlando as the only Thursday 3-seed pod. It couldn't be Wisconsin/Arizona State because USC (7-seed in KC) played ASU twice already.
  
• Mississippi State could not go to Denver because SEC team TAMU is there or Greensboro because SEC team Tennessee (played twice) is there, so MSU had to go to Columbus.
  
• Wisconsin/ASU couldn't go to Columbus because Wisconsin played Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament last year and couldn't go to Denver because ASU and UCLA (Vegas 2-seed) played twice. That left only Greensboro.
  
• Penn State was the team I had the most flexibility with, but because no one else allowed flexibility, they landed in Denver.

This thought process was what I went through on every line, and the reason I was so frustrated when I discovered UCLA could not play a play-in opponent in the first round. Because I do my seeding 1-16, so I had set 62/68 teams in the field before realizing it and had to start over from scratch.

[wisblue]

The Committee's procedures do say that "as a secondary consideration" they will try to avoid rematches of regular season nonconference games in the second round. In this case maybe it can't be avoided, and they say they will not move a team up or down a seed line to avoid nonconference rematches.

[brewcity77]

The Committee's procedures do say that "as a secondary consideration" they will try to avoid rematches of regular season nonconference games in the second round. In this case maybe it can't be avoided, and they say they will not move a team up or down a seed line to avoid nonconference rematches.

They do, and I generally try to avoid it, but there were harder rules preventing the other placements.