Monday, March 20, 2006

Valley Power

Let's have a look at the seeding and success of conferences that put four or more teams into the Dance. Seed averages are for ALL teams from that particular conference, not just teams that survived.

Big East (8): 4 teams left (.500). Avg seed (of all 8 teams): 5.25
SEC (6): 2 teams left (.333). Avg seed: 5.83
Big Ten (6): 0 teams left (.000). Avg seed: 5.00
ACC (4): 2 teams left (.500). Avg seed: 4.5
Pac-10 (4): 2 teams left (.500). Avg seed: 5.5
Big 12 (4): 1 team left (.250). Avg seed: 6.00

MVC (4): 2 teams left (.500). Avg seed: 10.25

(Cue music by Joe Raposo and John Stone)
"One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others, By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others? Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong? If you guessed this one is not like the others (HINT: non-BCS), Then you're absolutely...right!"

The MVC has had as much suceess as any of the other "power" conferences with DOUBLE the seed average. Not only that, but ZERO MVC teams were seeded to make the Sweet 16. Of the ten power conference teams left, three are 1-seeds, two are 2-seeds, one is a 3-seed, and two are 4-seeds. So, eight of the eleven BCS conference teams had the path of least resistance. Washington, West Virginia, and Georgetown were able to overcome their seeding disadvantages (5, 6, and 7 seeds, respecively). That's 3 of 18 teams from power conferences seeded 5-12. The MVC had two of their four teams do it.

For more on the success of non-BCS teams, jump over to Catallarchy. It's good stuff.

Game Recaps
I could have written about each individual game yesterday, but why would you want to eat a Bracket Board bologna sandwich when you can have tempo-free steak at Chez Pomeroy? Actually, I was out of town without i-net access last night.