Some people, when discussing the NCAA Basketball Tourney, they sometimes mention that this or that team is the highest or lowest Nth seed. For example, UNC is the highest number 1 seed and UCLA the lowest (I think).
Where do they get this kind of info? I checked the NCAA site and couldn’t find anything. Is it somewhere else in the net?
I don’t think this is explicity listed anywhere. We know that UNC is the number one overall seed because it was announced during the selection show. After that I think it’s just a guess by the analysts.
The regionals are positioned so that if all #1 seeds advance to the final four, the #1 overall seed plays the #4 overall seed and of course #2 plays #3. The committee also generally ranks other seeds in the bracket so that the #1 overall would be matched up against the weakest #2 seed in the Elite 8 round if the seeds hold true.
I thought that was a little odd, but I turned the selection show off after I learned where Wisconsin was headed so I didn’t hear them justifying the bracket. So I retract my 2nd sentence.
It was my understanding that Tennessee was placed in the East due to the geography of the region. In the East region they would play the sectionals in Charlotte. If, however, they had used an S-curve, Tennessee would have played in Detroit, most likely. The advantage of playing closer to home outweighed the value of playing the softest 1 seed.