Until about eight years ago, I annually wrote a "Smoking the Seeds" piece discussing the routine rigging and unfair manipulation of brackets by the NCAA tournament committee. The committee's transgressions, however, became so blatant as the seasons passed that there wasn't much that I could add to what had already been said.
I had written about Missouri State, with an RPI in the low 30's, being frozen out back when RPI was the committee mantra. I wrote about undefeated Wichita State being placed in a "Tarkanian bracket" -- so named for how the NCAA tried to screw his UNLV squads with bracket brutality. I've bitched and complained for decades. One year it's too many marginal Big East teams being shoe-horned into the tournament. The next year, and also this one, it's too many Big 10 teams getting jammed into the brackets.
It's always the same themes as to who gets squeezed out or screwed via seeding. It's the San Diego States, the Wichita States, and Murray States of the world. And the teams getting their butts kissed are always brand names having marginal years. Whether the jargon is RPI, BPI, or Quadrant-mania, the story repeats itself. The faces on the committee may change slightly year to year, but the illegal monopoly remains the same.
2022
One of my friends commented that televised shots of the tournament committee at work looked like dinner with the Republican National Committee. All old white guys deciding the fate of hundreds of black athletes and coaches.
This year, for some reason, the Big 10 became fashionable, and all manner of borderline-straddling teams from the conference were anointed. Indiana, Rutgers, and Michigan, all of whom I presumed needed at least one additional win for consideration, made it. Using the old RPI ratings, which were committee gospel for more than a decade, Michigan was 49, Ohio State 54, Indiana 70, and Rutgers 91. Wow.
Using the more moderne (and yes, the spelling is sarcasm) BPI, Michigan was 27, Indiana 31, and Rutgers 76. The BPI would also have Wisconsin as a seven seed. The Badgers are a three. Houston, they of the 28-5 record, lost three games by a total of five points to Wisconsin, Alabama, and SMU. They were also spanked twice by Memphis. Houston got a five seed. According to BPI, they are the second best team in the country.
None of this, however, is any news to those who coached San Diego State or Wichita State these last decades. It's a brand name monopoly, and it's actually gotten worse these last few years. The NCAA doesn't like writing checks unless those checks are going to teams with good Q (and I don't mean Quadrant) scores.
My Faves
When I saw Iowa State as an 11 seed, I gagged. Iowa F***ing State? The Cyclones lost their last three games 53-36, 75-68, and 72-41. All those white guys on the committee must be patting each other on the back. The state of Iowa is 91.3% white. Just sayin'. If white is right, the Cyclones should have been given a top seed. Why only an 11?
On the flip side, SMU had some clunkers, but nothing like that three-game closing stretch by Iowa State. I think that SMU got the short end.
Conclusion
About 10 years ago, there was a push to exclude teams with sub-.500 conference records from the tournament. That would have solved some of the unfairness. It would also have minimized the possibility that the committee could really screw up the tournament by badly misjudging any single conference. Had that rule been in effect this year, TCU (8-10 conference), Iowa F***ing State (7-11), and Indiana (9-11) would be in the NIT. But no, the committee executed their routine monopolistic cash grab for the brand name conferences.
It's only going to get worse and worse until somebody takes the gathering of white dudes to court.
Bob Dietz
March 16, 2022
