Gordon Hayward takes one last shot to try and win for the underdog Bulldogs from Butler, out of the mid major Horizon League

Ah its that time of the year again. One of the best times of the year, March Madness! Every year, division one basketball decides their national champion with a month long tournament that contains 68 teams. Win and advance, lose and go home. The teams are seed 1-16 in four regions, and no one is safe. Cinderella teams provide excitement with incredible upsets as the tournament progresses. To most, march madness is a fun tournament with people filling out their brackets trying to get a perfect bracket. But how is the bracket decided? Who decides what 68 teams make the tournament? Every year the field is marred with controversy between the teams invited and how those teams are seeded. Part I will focus on how the committee decides which teams are invited.

To start, there are 32 conferences in D1 basketball. Every conference has a tournament at the end of the season with the winning team receiving an automatic bid. These teams have unequivocally earned their way in to the tournament. The other 36 teams invited to the big dance are considered at-large bids. Much like the College Football Playoff committee and their selection process, there is a committee designated to select the at-large worthy teams. Similar to the CFP, teams and their respective resumes are pitted against one another to determine who should receive a bid. At the top of the 36 there are obviously teams that are no brainers and deserve to make the tournament. These teams come from conference that have many good teams where winning a conference title is very hard. The final four teams, known as the last four in, are where the most discussion and lies are told.

A dreaded term for all tournament hopeful teams is, “the bubble”. Being on the bubble means that a team is in one of four spots. Last four byes, last four byes, first four out, and the next four out are the teams that are on the bubble. Several metrics are used by the committee to determine if a team can make the cut. Strength of schedule, RPI, head to head, overall record, and record against common opponents are the first criteria used to determine what teams should be in. This year, a new criteria was introduced and heavily influenced which teams made the tournament. Every team is placed in a quadrant with the first quadrant being the best teams. Bubble teams are most heavily judged on the amount of quadrant one wins a team has. A quadrant one win is as follows: A team with an RPI of 25 or lower is a quadrant one win if the game is won at home, a team with an RPI of 50 or lower is a quad one win if the game is on a neutral site, and a team with an RPI of 75 or lower is a quad one win if the game is on the road. That is the criteria that is used to decide who makes the tournament. But is this a fair indicator? It is a lie.

In this year’s field,there is a startling and blatant disregard for what should be considered. Per the committee, the last team into the tournament field was Syracuse with a record of 20-13. Among the teams left out, the most egregious and blatant bias was shown with the snub of St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s finished 28-5. 28-5. Let that sink in. Only 5 times were they beaten, and their best win comes against the team ranked 8 in the country, Gonzaga. Yes, Syracuse played an overall tougher schedule, but they did not beat those teams. So why are they a better team? Because they can lose well? Their best win was against 19 in the country. Syracuse had a little bit higher of an RPI at 39 vs. 42, but St. Mary’s, is viewed as the much better team by apparently everyone in the country but the committee. Does that seem like too wide of a generalization to make? Tell that to the Associated Press who rank them as 25 in the country. The committee is so blinded by their bias for power conference teams as opposed to non power teams has caused them to leave a team, ranked the 25th best in the country, out of the tournament. If one were to just take every team and the top 25 and then seed them (four teams per seed), the 25th best team in the country would be seeded as a 7 seed. A 7 seed is not even on the bubble, and several ranked teams receive automatic bids so there is even more room for St. Mary’s to be in. Why are they not in then? Simply because the committee is a lie and does not want them in. A school like Syracuse, a brand name in basketball, with a coach like Jim Boeheim, and a conference like the ACC, are more appealing because they will bring more money. St. Bonaventure’s, non power 5 team who made it in as a last four, won last night over UCLA- college basketball royalty. Yet according to the committee, non power 5 teams cannot compete. Part two will elaborate further on the injustice faced by non power teams.

The bracket is set. Who will come out on top?