Here is the breakdown by conferences: Pac 10 – 7 WCC – 5 Big 10 – 6 ACC -6 SEC – 4 Big East – 4 Big 12 – 3 Ivy - 2 In my opinion, Duke, NC State and Florida got royally screwed. Can someone tell me how Mississippi, San Diego, and AZ State got in with there weak schedules and lack of power wins???
According to the thingy I printed out...Ohio State has a record of 8-10-3. How the hell does a sub .500 team get into the tourney? Or was that a misprint and it's suppose to read 10-8-3?
Ohio State won the Big 10 Tournament, they got the automatic bid. How the hell is Notre Dame even in and much less, how the hell are they hosting the first 2 rounds?
I don't understand this group of eight teams: Pepperdine, UW-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Marquette, Michigan State, Miami (OH), Oakland, Michigan. One team from California, three from Wisconsin, three from Michigan, and one from Ohio. If it is supposed to be regionalized why is Pepperdine here?
How in the world does 5 of the top 12 teams end up in the same region? UCLA (#3), Texas (#8), Texas A&M (#4), Tennessee (#11) and UNC (#2) in the same bracket is a disservice to several of these teams. Texas and Texas A&M got screwed the worse of the top contenders! Pepperdine, Santa Clara, Stanford, and Portland got the best possible draws. Each of these schools should send presents to the selection committee.
From what I understand, of these eight schools in the first two rounds, only Pepperdine will have to travel a great distance to play in what seems to be a north/mid-western regional. For the third round most likely only one team will have to travel (depending on who wins first and second round games.) I think this is the same thing that happened with Santa Clara last year, where they had to go to the midwest as well for their first two games (even though they were a #2 seed). I think this is because of what the committe deemed to be a western region with many top level teams.
No kidding! A&M and UT paid a HUGE price for losing (close, no less) in the Big XII tournament, especially considering they'd both beaten Nebraska in Nebraska during the regular season. A&M has serious grounds for complaint: close losses to the #1 and #2 seeds, loss to a good Cal team on the road, tie against a solid Baylor team and then a very close loss to Nebraska to end the year...not even worthy of a seed? Get real! Portland, by comparison, has losses to the #3 and #6 seeds, a tie against a good San Diego team, a tie against Carolina, but early losses to BYU and Utah. A&M had the better season, start to finish...a path that includes Texas, UCLA, and UNC for the #4 team in the country? Brutal.
Ok, thanks. I was under the impression that Pepperdine was the host and everyone else would have to travel.
I just realized that Washington did not make it. That is a crime. The Pac got 6 teams and the fifth place team did not make it. This is another team that had a tough schedule and did not get rewarded for it.
Good lord. Last rant of the night from me. Villanova is unranked in NSCAA, 20th in Soccer America (only poll release today before the tournament selection announced), and lost in the semifinals of their tournament to a higher ranked team. Duke is unranked in NSCAA and 21st in Soccer America, lost in the semifinals of their tournament to a higher ranked team. Villanova gets in to the NCAA AND gets to host the first two rounds. Duke gets nothing.
UCLA got f'ed up big time. How does the 3rd-ranked in all the polls get tagged as the 7th seed by the selection committee? Assuming the Bruins get by this Friday against Loyola Marymount, and on Sunday against the winner of USC-San Diego, the Bruins will face either Texas or Texas A&M the following week. A week after that, the next opponent will come from the UNC bracket. What the hell is that? Talk about the group of death. There's no frigging way UCLA's a 7th seed, in a 3rd-round group that includes unranked Texas & Texas A&M. UCLA should have been seeded no lower than 4th.
Yep, UCLA got screwed in the seeding. How in the world are West Virginia and UConn seeded so high? Did any of the committee members give a post selection analysis or answer questions? They've done so in the past, I'd be curious to know what the hell they smoked before hand, cause it must have been some trippy stuff cause they really screwed up big time, both in leaving out deserving teams and in the seeding process. And Portland, the #8 seed, has to travel and they don't get to host at all? I think Pepperdine is the same, they don't host either, while teams like Villanova, FSU and Notre Dame do host? Clemson was better than FSU and they have to travel. Hardly anything in this whole field of 64 makes any sense and more than just the deserving teams who didn't make it, got screwed.
Not defending the committee at all, b/c they did a crappy job but I think I can rationalize the Pepperdine and Portland travel. Pepperdine gets the easiest bracket. There only negative is the travel/weather factor. Instead of paying to ship all the midwest teams to pepperdine, they ship only pepperdine to them. Again, as a #3 seed they are rewarded with a cake walk of a bracket. Portland, the same thing. They play 3 teams in a similar local so it is cheaper for the NCAA. BYU is not a cake walk by any means so the bracket is not quite as easy as Pepperdines.
You're right. How come BYU plays host this week, in a group that includes 8th-seed Portland? Just because SLC & Provo is spitting distance of each other, & Idaho State a few hours away? WTF is the purpose of being seeded anyway? So you have to go pack your bags & play someplace else?
Personally, I feel sorry for USC. Every year they seem to play San Diego in the first round and the winner has to play UCLA. For variety sake, it would be nice to see those two play someone else first round.
The least the selection committee could have done was to ask UCLA if they wanted to be the # 3 seed & travel to the Upper Peninsula. Unaccustomed to the frigid temps, Jillian Ellis probably rationalized things & would rather take her chances against LMU, USC, Texas/Texas A&M, & eventually UNC.
Had the selection committee decided to have Pepperdine host the first round, USC would have gone there instead. But they chose to send the beach bums to the frozen tundra instead.
I really hope the weather doesn't take away from Pepperdines chances. They are a great team and that would be a shame.
I have a soft spot for relatively unheralded Pepperdine. For them to beat both Portland & Santa Clara to win the WCC is a big accomplishment. It's a shame the powers-that-be decided there couldn't be a second southern California host.
Power Ratings Analysis I apparently have more time on my hands than is a good thing, but here goes. The NCAA grants 29 conferences an automatic bid into the NCAA's. That leaves 35 at large berths. then look at the Albyn Jones power ratings--which may be imperfect, but the most unbiased consolidation of record and strength of schedule we have. It also should favor a good record late in the season over a slow start if I understand the system correctly. If you select the next strongest 35 teams that don't get an automatic birth you come to the following conclusions. Washington (Albyn Jones 18), Florida (AJ26), St. Mary's (AJ33) and Duke (AJ34) were passed over. Marquette (AJ46), Mississippi (AJ62), Yale (AJ70) and Rhode Island (AJ71) got gifts. The seeding is a whole different deal and admittedly involves geography, regional rivals and expense of travel. Overall, I think Texas A&M got the rawest deal (Texas has a habit of choking in the big game and must prove themselves first). Connecticut and West Virginia must have important friends on the committee. This is all fun, but the national champion will still have to win 6 games, regardless of who and where they play.
I would have been okay with Pepperdine as the No. 4 seed, but the No. 3 seed they received was what UCLA should have gotten. The only rationale I can see with the NCAA putting Pepperdine at No. 3 is that they won their conference title and UCLA did not. Still, it doesn't seem fair. As UFGator98 said, I want to know what the committee was smoking when they devised these brackets.
On further analysis Regarding hosting 1st round games. The following 16 teams are hosts for the 1st round: -------------Jones rank--NSCCA--NCAA seed Stanford----------1--------1---------1 UNC--------------2--------2---------2 UCLA-------------3--------3---------7 Santa Clara-------4--------6---------6 Texas A&M--------6--------4--------NR Connecticut-------8--------7--------4 West Virginia------13-------10-------5 BYU--------------14-------16-------NR Notre Dame-------16-------19-------NR Maryland---------19-------17--------NR Tennessee--------20-------11-------NR Michigan----------27-------NR-------NR Florida State------31-------22-------NR Villanova----------35-------NR-------NR Charlotte---------36-------13-------NR Marquette--------46--------NR------NR Others left out: Portland-----------5---------9-------8 Pepperdine--------10--------5-------3 More figures for fun. Obviously, my bias toward Albyn Jones ratings shows, but the committee may have looked at them seriously too!
College Women: No easy path for No. 1 Stanford in NCAA Tournament Analysis: North Carolina, UCLA, Texas and Texas A&M in fight for one final-four berth http://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562132577 re-damn-diculous if you ask me! So many teams from the ACC and SEC, yet no NC State or Florida. also pretty rediculous.
Beth, thanks for the link. Santa Clara had a lot of pull with the selection committee to draw the bracket they did. Stanford got a more difficult bracket: Stanford - Cal Poly SLO; Cal - Denver Santa Clara - Creighton; ASU - WSU Santa Clara are still reaping the rewards for winning last year, by drawing the weaker Western teams in their bracket. So much for Stanford being seeded # 1. Let me end my rant by saying that the bracket with 4th seed UConn & 5th seed WV is a joke. That UConn & WV are seeded as highly as they are, and Santa Clara & UCLA are seeded as low as they are, makes little sense. Other than my speculation that the Big East had a lot of pull with the selection committee to ensure that they'll have a representative in the Final Four.