On Sunday, March 15, millions of college basketball fans tuned into a tradition commonly referred to as “Selection Sunday” with the hopes that their team would be called out to be seeded into the 2026 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments. For context, a seed refers to a team’s ranking within the four regions that teams are sorted into: East, South, West and Midwest. Each region contains 16 teams, for a total of 64 bids. The last four refer to teams that receive an at-large bid, meaning they must play each other to earn a spot in the first round of the tournament. The Villanova men’s basketball team was an 8-seed this year, while the women’s team was a 10-seed.
Lots of students think that the NCAA’s team placement is biased. One of the hottest teams this season was Miami University’s men’s team, which ended its regular season schedule undefeated with 31 wins. From the outside, someone who has not seen much college basketball could easily argue that this fact alone attests to why Miami deserved a higher seed than it received and that this record would send the team far into the tournament. In contrast, Miami found itself in the last four on Selection Sunday. As a result, it was required to play against Southern Methodist University (SMU) on March 18 and won, 89-79. However, it was defeated by Tennessee in the first round of the tournament.
Using this information, it becomes easier to analyze how at-large bids are granted to teams and why their seeds are what they are. Although Miami ended its regular season undefeated, the teams it played were less challenging due to the conference it is in. In contrast, schools in the Big Ten conference, such as Michigan and Ohio State, received at-large bids before Miami, even though they did not go undefeated because of the talent within the conference.
Two schools within the Big East Conference have been competitive against each other in recent years: St. John’s and Connecticut (UConn). St. John’s cemented itself as a school to watch out for after its men’s basketball team won the Big East Tournament last year, granting it an automatic at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Although it fell short of the University of Arkansas in the second round last year, St. John’s defeated UConn once again this year to win the Big East Tournament for the second consecutive year.
Regardless, on Selection Sunday, fans watched as UConn was slotted as a two-seed while St. John’s was named the five-seed for the North. This left some fans slightly confused. Although UConn has a longer legacy than St. John’s and won more national titles, shouldn’t the fact that St. John’s won the Big East Tournament give it a higher rank?
Although these questions are all valid, they will never truly be answered. It is more important to focus on the team’s individual accomplishments than on comparing its placement.
