The actual bids are alright (I have problems with a couple, as you will see later), but the seeding and location of a number of teams is absolutely horrible. You can tell the selection committee went into the proceedings with no kind of standard and simply placed teams whereever they wanted.
For a number of them, they did think it was cute to pit a number of teams in the first round, namely some intrastate matchups. However, they did it at the expense of a long travel for some of those teams.
Illinois is in Chicago, UNC goes to Syracuse, and Duke goes to Austin. That's not surprising. The surprising one is Washington getting the #1 seed in the Albequerque Region. Thus, you can not tell me that the selection committee does not listen to the analysts on CBS and ESPN along with the network sports websites, because no one even talked about Washington grabbing a possible #1 seed until Kentucky went down in flames today in the SEC tournament.
So Wake Forest not only got a #2 seed, but they also was sent out west to Albequerque. How in the world did they fall so low by simply losing to NC State? I don't agree with that seeding whatsoever, and I'm sure there's heat on Chris Paul for getting suspended right now.
But at least Wake got a #2 seed. Definitely the team that caught the worst seed placement by far was Louisville. Louisville was the Conference USA champion and was ranked 6th in the nation. How did they end up as a 4 seed having to go to Albequerque? That's crazy. Meanwhile, UConn - who was defeated by Syracuse in the Big East semis - got a #2 seed...in Syracuse. Syracuse, who was ranked pretty equally with UConn throughout the year, got a #4 seed in Austin. Florida didn't get a good deal, as they won the SEC Championship as well and ended up with a #4 seed.
I did support them giving UAB and Iowa State a bid into the championship, as both of them had great records and fought tough competition throughout the year. However, Northern Iowa had no business getting a bid to the tournament.
It's real simple; a mediocre team from a power conference gets dibs over a mediocre team from a mediocre conference. I find it hard to believe that the Missouri Valley Conference got three bids (Southern Illinois, Creighton, Northern Illinois) without any of them beating a ranked team. Meanwhile, Notre Dame will go to the NIT despite roughly having the same record yet beating UConn, Villanova, and Syracuse and playing nine games against a ranked team. That should tell you that the RPI polling system should be trashed. Not fixed, trashed.
But, it is what it is. Let's try to enjoy March Madness while it lasts. It should be fun.