Five Questions for March Madness Fans -- #4

4) Will the NCAA Tournament Committee continue padding the field with brand names?

As someone who has USC, I hope they do this year. Well, not really. In past seasons, the committee has done what I call "smoking the seeds," because hallucinogenics is the only way they could have arrived at the brackets.

Usually, the committee jams the tournament with brand names from moneyed conferences. I refuse to use the phrase "power conferences" because that implies they have better teams. Or maybe the phrase is actually apropos because they wield all the power when it comes to TV money. In any event, here's the short list of teams that may be left by the wayside:

St. Mary's
Wichita State
Valparaiso
Monmouth

Here's some teams the committee will shoehorn in if at all possible:

USC
UConn
Michigan

Then there will be the matter of seedings. Rest assured, St. Joe's, VCU, Dayton, San Diego State, and Gonzaga are going to get a bunch of ugly seeds that may feature a number of them playing each other or the dangerous small schools like Chattanooga. Nothing like a Dayton/Gonzaga matchup with the winner to play Kansas.

Why does the committee do this? They really, really do not like writing checks to smaller conferences.

Final note: Wichita State is a dangerous outfit, having led the country in team defense. I will be surprised if the committee allows them in, as they could cash a series of checks, and nobody on the committee wants that.

As a loyal USC fan I'll tell you this about them. They'll struggle in in the first round but will be real tough to beat if someone only has a day to prepare for them on Sat./Sun. I see them in the Sweet 16.

Wichita State has a pretty strong Tournament history. I think they're in.

One would think that with their recent tournament history and pedigree, Wichita State would be in, especially since they lost in the conference tourney to Northern Iowa, which has its own solid tournament history.

So if they're not in, it's a real JR Ewing move by the committee.

Not too many big upsets yet, which is good for bubble teams.