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Selection committee creates new incentive to land No. 1 overall seed

Jeff Eisenberg
·Senior writer
The NCAA announced changes to its selection, bracketing and seeding process on Monday (AP)
The NCAA Tournament selection committee announced changes to Its process on Monday (AP)

College basketball’s elite teams have a new incentive to vie for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

Starting next March, the No. 1 overall seed will have the chance to select the regional site where it plays first- and second-round games.

Geography has previously been the determining factor for which site the No. 1 overall seed is assigned. Contenders now will be able to share their preferences with the NCAA tournament selection committee in advance.

The eight cities hosting first- and second-round NCAA tournament games next March are Buffalo, Greensboro, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Tulsa. Michigan State could now request to play in a familiar arena in Indianapolis even if it’s 50 miles farther from campus than Milwaukee and Arizona could now ask to play in Wildcats-friendly California even if Sacramento is 100 miles farther from Tucson than Salt Lake City.

That policy change came from the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ ad hoc group, which was formed last month to make recommendations to the committee on selection, seeding and bracketing matters. The committee openly considered each recommendation, adopting some and agreeing to further study others.

Among the other decisions the committee made was to study possibilities for a more effective composite ranking system to replace — or at least de-emphasize — the RPI. The committee intends to study other potential analytic methods, but will not make a change until the 2017-18 college basketball season at the earliest.

The NABC ad hoc group also recommended that quality wins, overall and non-league strength of schedule and road/neutral wins remain primary criteria in selecting and seeding the NCAA tournament field. At the behest of the NABC ad hoc group, the committee also reaffirmed its principle to give equal weight to regular season league outcomes and conference tournament results.

Lastly, the committee named longtime Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen the 2018 NCAA Tournament selection chair. He’ll succeed Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis, who will serve his final year on the committee next season.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!