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.
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