04/25/24
March 14, 2011
68-Team Field Set for March Madness: The newly expanded 68-team NCAA Tournament bracket has been set with Ohio State, Duke, Kansas and Pittsburgh as the No. 1 seeds. The Florida Times-Union breaks down the southeast, southwest, west and east regionals. Virginia Tech and Colorado were among the top snubs. Play-in games begin Tuesday.
posted by rcade to basketball at 11:32 AM - 5 comments
Dickie V. guaranteed on national TV that the Hokies were going to the dance after they beat Duke.
posted by beaverboard at 11:52 AM on March 14, 2011
Can anyone explain how a play-in game could make a team the No. 11 seed in its regional?
Pure conjecture, but I would guess that it's one of those bubble teams that are better than the conference champs of a small conference?
For instance, the Big South champ is often seeded 15/16. Based on the play-in game ranking, I would assume that that #11 bubble team would be presumed to easily win the Big South, but was in a conference where they didn't win the conference championship and thus no automatic bid.
posted by jmd82 at 12:25 PM on March 14, 2011
The idea was that the last four at-large teams into the tournament played each other in a play-in. Typically, those teams get 11 and 12 seeds. This year, the other three 12 seeds went to 1-bid conference champions, so the last four at-larges will play for the last 11 and the first 12.
As goofy as it seems on the surface, I really like this idea. When who gets in and who gets left out is subjective and will always be fodder for debate, this way, the last couple teams actually settle it on the court.
posted by bender at 01:05 PM on March 14, 2011
Video of Colorado not getting in.
posted by rcade at 01:31 PM on March 14, 2011
Can anyone explain how a play-in game could make a team the No. 11 seed in its regional? You're not quite good enough to be a No. 15 seed, but if you win a game you're four teams better.