The 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket has been released. As usual, there are no major complaints, but I'll pick a few nits with the NCAA selection committee.
I think the committee should have rewarded Kansas with the overall No. 1 seed. The Jayhawks had the best schedule by far and 17 Quad 1 wins. Most of those wins came against teams going to the NCAA Tournament.
It matters because of geographic preference. Kansas will not get to play in the Midwest Regionals in Kansas City as it would have as the No. 1 overall seed, or even No. 2 overall seed ahead of Houston.
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Alabama was a team the committee really liked this season. The Crimson Tide were the overall No. 1 seed on Feb. 18 during the NCAA's Early Bracket reveal and held that spot again three weeks later.
Further down the bracket, Texas A&M as a No. 7 seed was a surprise for being so low. The Aggies were great once SEC play started, but the committee punished them for a poor non-conference schedule, which included two Quad 4 losses. For those of you who think the committee gets caught up in recency bias, here is evidence against that.
At the bottom of the bracket, I missed Rutgers for the second straight year. Last year, I had the Scarlet Knights out and they got in. This time, they were my last team in the field of 68 and they were left out. Arizona State, my first team out, got in instead.
I have no problem with that. Every team that got left out gave the committee a reason to do so. There are also half a dozen teams that are in the bracket that also gave the committee a reason to leave them out, but they can't leave them all out. It is still a 68-team tournament.
The Big Ten and SEC each had the most teams selected with eight each. However, only two teams from each conference are seeded to the Sweet 16. The Big East has three such teams and the Big 12 leads with four of the top 16.
Time to put Bracketology aside and get to the games! I hope your team wins, unless they are playing mine.
