Re: 2012 NCAA Tournament: Division I Bracketology
I honestly believe them when they say they pick the teams first and then worry about travel.
I do think three political factors favoring North Dakota are (1) there was pressure last year for the committee to be more like the men's committee and go closer to the straight pairwise and (2) two of the four committee members are from the WCHA and (3) it was largely the WCHA who complained the loudest last year, and there's going to be a lot of pressure from WCHA.
I'd also like them to switch SLU & BU. It just makes for a better tournament not to have these conference tourney retreads. I think the committee overreacted to criticism from 06-07 when Harvard got moved to Wisconsin. I think it's good to switch teams that are "close" in the PWR, like BU and SLU are. But I'm doubting that'll happen. One of the main reasons is that the harshest criticism came from Mark Johnson last year for the committee "failing to protect the top seed" and if Wisconsin gets #7 SLU they've failed to protect the top seed. Ironically, I might prefer to play SLU over BU at this point, though I think it's close.
I honestly believe them when they say they pick the teams first and then worry about travel.
I do think three political factors favoring North Dakota are (1) there was pressure last year for the committee to be more like the men's committee and go closer to the straight pairwise and (2) two of the four committee members are from the WCHA and (3) it was largely the WCHA who complained the loudest last year, and there's going to be a lot of pressure from WCHA.
I'd also like them to switch SLU & BU. It just makes for a better tournament not to have these conference tourney retreads. I think the committee overreacted to criticism from 06-07 when Harvard got moved to Wisconsin. I think it's good to switch teams that are "close" in the PWR, like BU and SLU are. But I'm doubting that'll happen. One of the main reasons is that the harshest criticism came from Mark Johnson last year for the committee "failing to protect the top seed" and if Wisconsin gets #7 SLU they've failed to protect the top seed. Ironically, I might prefer to play SLU over BU at this point, though I think it's close.
