When a team earns a high seed it should gain some advantages beyond playing a lower seed. When I looked at the events leading up to the pairing announcements there is a real disadvantage for teams that play on the last Sunday before the pairing announcement. I'm going to use Iowa to explain. Before the Big Ten Tournament it had risen to a 5 seed in bracket speculation and with a top 15 net ranking. Iowa ended with a close lost at Illinois on the 6th of March. Iowa then played games on the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th. That is 5 games in 7 days and 4 of the 5 games were against teams making the NCAA tournament field. Iowa's reward was nil. It didn't get a better seed for winning the Big Ten tourney and then having to play on Thursday, the 17th, in a different time zone in a bracket of teams from the eastern time zone and a closer distance.
I'm not trying to make excuses but where and when you play are big factors in preparation for a game. I just feel the NCAA negated Iowa's seed by making them play on Thursday and in a hostile environment.
I'm not trying to make excuses but where and when you play are big factors in preparation for a game. I just feel the NCAA negated Iowa's seed by making them play on Thursday and in a hostile environment.