The Pac-12 isn’t happy. The Big 10 isn’t happy. The Sun Belt is overjoyed, and the ASun is finally fulfilled. All in all, a normal Selection Sunday post-mortem.
See above for the full bracket.
UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Oklahoma State were generally seen as the accepted first five seeds, and that was exactly how things shook out. Arkansas, LSU, and Missouri earned the 6th, 7th, and 8th seeds, respectively. All eight of those teams will not only host regionals, but will likely host Super regionals so long as they reach that round.
In at #9 overall was Tennessee. The Lady Vols were followed by Florida State, Arizona, and Texas. The ACC Champion Duke Blue Devils earned the #13 overall seed, and will play as the top team in the Athens regional. Durham – Duke’s home – was not selected as one of the predetermined host sites, so the Blue Devils will play at Georgia’s home stadium. Rounding out the seeded teams, all hosting at their own home ballparks, are Kentucky, Arizona State, and Washington.
Now, into some nitty-gritty…
PAC-12 SCORN
A number of coaches and alumni in the PAC-12 were incredulous after the game’s most historic conference placed just one team in the top 8 national seeds and Washington suffered a steep drop to the 16-seed. Many described the unexpected happenings as “disrespect” for the PAC-12, though that characterization discounts some legitimate factors that likely factored into the decisions. For instance, Arizona was 4-8 against Arizona State, Oregon, and UCLA combined and Washington had a terrible non-conference slate (including losses to teams ranked #86 and #116). Whether or not the PAC-12 teams should have been ranked higher is subjective, but one thing that PAC-12 coaches and fans alike have to remember is that being the game’s most historic conference doesn’t automatically equate to being the game’s best conference in the present day and schedules have to reflect reality, not perception.
BIG 10 ANGER
Similar to the PAC-12, the Big 10 was enraged en masse after the conference saw just three teams selected for the tournament. Conference champion Michigan, who had been selected as one of the potential hosting sites, instead will be the regional 2-seed at Washington. Minnesota will go to UCLA as the regional 2-seed, while Northwestern will be the regional 4-seed at the Kentucky regional. After playing conference-only games, the Big 10 suffered from a lack of measurable metrics and without non-conference games, league teams were left to allow their league record to speak solely for itself – which didn’t work out well. Anger from the Big 10 member schools should be directed not at the selection committee, but at the Big Ten office. Address your complaint letters to Warren comma Kevin at the B1G headquarters.
SEC BIAS?
After the perceived slights to the PAC-12 and the Big 10, the SEC was the obvious villain in the room. The SEC saw eight teams selected to host a Regional, seven of them doing so as both the host and #1 regional seed. We didn’t expect the committee to seed five SEC teams in the top 8 national seeds, but they did exactly that. A hard decision, but it was deserved. The top 6 teams likely would receive little to no argument from anyone in the country, though seeds 7 and 8 were hotly debated ahead of Sunday night. LSU – with their incredible strength of schedule – got the 7th seed, and Missouri got the 8th. The two sets of Tigers got hot against the right teams and at the right time, and the committee obviously ignored potentially bad optics for the sake of rewarding what they saw as the best teams who had earned the spots.
WHY GEORGIA STAYED IN ATHENS
As the #13 overall seed, Duke will be the 1-seed at the Athens regional. Georgia was selected as one of the 20 predetermined hosting sites, and is the closest program to Durham (among the unseeded hosts) that also isn’t in the Blue Devils’ conference. Duke deserved to be seeded, and they were rewarded for their championship. A bigger question arose on social media as to how Georgia was able to stay home in their hosted regional when they are not the seeded team. The answer to that question is simple; that was always the plan. It was part of the NCAA’s layout that a team that hosted, but was unseeded, would stay at home.
MID-MAJORS REJOICE
Sunday night was a win for mid-majors. The Sun Belt got four teams into the tournament. The ASun and Missouri Valley were both multi-bid leagues. Teams like Kennesaw State, Northern Iowa, and Troy, all of whom spent the latter part of the season waffling back and forth on the bubble, all made it in. Even better for those teams, they did it at the expense of an SEC team and other Power 5 teams; for some leagues that have spent many years fighting for what they feel is deserved recognition, the mid-majors got exactly that in this year’s bracket.
REGIONAL SUPERLATIVES
Best Hitting: Norman Regional (Oklahoma, Wichita State, Texas A&M, Morgan State)
Jocelyn Alo, Tiare Jennings, and Kinzie Hansen are just three of an entire lineup full of big boppers in Norman. Who does the committee send to them? None other than Wichita State’s heavy-hitting lineup that includes Addison Barnard and Madison Perrigan, as well as Texas A&M’s breakout stars Haley Lee and Makinzy Herzog. There are some good pitchers in this regional, to be sure, but expect a LOT of balls to leave the yard.
Best Pitching: Los Angeles Regional (UCLA, Minnesota, Fresno State, Long Beach State)
Rachel Garcia. Megan Faraimo. Amber Fiser. Autumn Pease. Hailey Dolcini. Kellie White. Shannon Hadded. All in the same regional. Should we continue?
Deepest Regional: Knoxville Regional (Tennessee, James Madison, Liberty, Eastern Kentucky)
James Madison and Liberty both could have been regional 2-seeds, and instead they wind up in the same place, a familiar place. Tennessee got the 9th overall seed, but easily scored the toughest regional. James Madison brings a stellar pitching staff and an offensive attack led by Kate Gordon’s hot bat, while Liberty and the Bishop sisters are possibly the toughest 3-seed in the tournament. And oh by the way, the regional 4-seed is EKU, the champs of a stacked Ohio Valley Conference.
Breakout Team to Watch: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Did that pick surprise you? Hear me out. The Fighting Irish have a quality pitching corps in Alexis Holloway and Payton Tidd, and have a real offensive juggernaut – and a likely All-American – in Abby Sweet. The Lexington regional is pretty evenly matched across the board, with the nation’s toughest 4-seed in Northwestern and a bonafide superstar in the circle for Miami Ohio in Courtney Vierstra. But it’s the Fighting Irish who stand out to me, in part because they are always quiet, but always around. Watch out for the team from South Bend.
Upset Alert: Washington Huskies
OK, it’s not the most shocking thing we’ve ever predicted. The Huskies have a chip on their shoulders now, as they feel disrespected by their seeding, and in any normal situation, a team on a mission would be a very dangerous thing. Except their regional 2-seed is a team on a mission of their own in the equally-annoyed Michigan Wolverines. If it comes down to those two teams, the key factor could be Michigan’s pitching depth against Washington’s lack thereof.
