NCAA College Mens Basketball Tournament March Madness Picks
Madness in March, or March Madness?? My NCAA Bracket
One of my favorite years to watch the NCAA tournament was in 2005 when Illinois went all the way to the national championship. They were 25-0 in regular season play and Big Ten conference champs.
I was in the U.S Navy away on deployment in the Arabian Gulf, and at the time watching the tournament from my stateroom. For me, that was one of the most exciting tournaments I’ve watched, especially being a fan of Illini.
Unfortunately they lost to North Carolina 75-70 – one of the biggest disappointments, ever.
But things have changed and we haven’t been back since, so I’ll be rooting for another team this year.
This Sunday I watched the 2016 NCAA tournament schedule break down on ESPN, and I’m excited to see if my bracket actually holds up. I spent an hour on my picks and I could use the prize money–you can visit espn.com/bracket to start your own bracket.
As you can see in this post I’ve posted my selection for the tournament ahead of it’s start on Tuesday, March 15, 2016.
This is the 78th edition of the tournament and of course, with 68 teams playing for the NCAA national championship title anything can happen!
Every year a committee selects, seeds, and brackets into the field 68 teams for play. There are 10 individuals on this committee all with very diverse backgrounds in athletics from different colleges across the country. Joe Castiglione is the NCAA Tournament Committee Chairman and the overseer of the selection process.
There is a lot of debate over how teams are selected and the methods by which the committee uses. In the past the committee has taken teams that have had big wins and slotted them above other teams with comparable strengths. The committee ranks a variety of things when it comes to team selection, non-conference wins, strength of schedule, and team efficiency to name a few. The determination could also be the number of wins against the top 50 teams.
Point being, the selection process is a toss-up in my opinion.
Ok, so a few quick facts:
– Michigan State won nine games in a row and beat Kansas. They will be in the tournament this year.
– Bonaventure didn’t have good strength in schedule. They’re out.
– South Carolina only had one win against the top 50. They’re out.
– San Diego only won two out of three games against top teams in their league. They’re out.
– Oregon was #1 because of regular season champs, #2 rpi, and outstanding top 25 and 50 wins.
You can also read more about the NCAA snubbing Monmouth in this detailed article.
Another interesting thing to note when it comes to the bracket is that teams are slotted based on geography. Not all of the teams are slotted in geographical areas close to where they are but that’s another conversation.
Read my previous blog post below.