Reviewed by: Pat Byington
NCAA Tournament Selection panel on Alabama’s Bediako, expansion + more
Reading time: 7 minutes
The Birmingham Tip Off Club held its weekly meeting at the Harbert Center but instead of a local coach joining the program, one current member and one former member of the NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee were in attendance.
And before talking with the members, both Martin Newton and Charles McClelland gave their expertise on a variety of topics including:
- Evaluating Alabama with and without Charles Bediako
- Last week’s top 16 reveal
- Auburn on the bubble
- Tournament expansion
Keep reading to get some insight on how the committee works less than four weeks away from Selection Sunday.
Will Alabama be punished for playing Charles Bediako?
Charles Bediako played five games for Alabama before once again being ruled ineligible (catch up on the full timeline here). The Crimson Tide went 3-2 with Bediako on the court and have not lost since the latest ruling.
While the big man is still going through the appeal process, it’s clear his availability has already been a talking point for the selection committee and will continue to be moving forward.
“We start at the beginning of the season. Evaluating teams, and then what we do is we evaluate teams based on the roster that they have right into the tournament. Injuries, suspensions, those are part of them, right? So our goal is not to determine why they were injured, why they were suspended, why they were whatever they might have been. Our job is to evaluate those teams based on the current roster that they have. And that affects a lot of things, right? That affects what games that they won. That also affects teams that have beaten them. So we have to take all that into evaluation. And this year, there’s been a slew of injuries, a slew of suspensions. So we’ve evaluated all those teams based on the current roster.”
Martin Newton, current NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee Vice Chair
Bediako’s eligibility case has caused a stir among coaches and media members across the country.
Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said he expects the committee to look at his team’s loss in Tuscaloosa differently since Bediako played. Former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has gone as far as saying the committee should consider banning the Crimson Tide from the tournament.
While Newton bounced around hypotheticals dealing with a broader sense of availability, former vice chair Charles McClelland specifically spoke about how the committee could address the Bediako situation.
“Well, it’s certainly going to be talked about because there’s a decision that’s going to have to be made… Again, not sitting in the committee room, but I can tell you 100% certainty, the committee’s job is not to litigate eligibility.”
“So whether Alabama had a player that played for 4 or 5 games, what they did, my understanding was they were like 3-2 in that time frame, they will evaluate that. So as a matter of fact, it seems to me, again, I’m on the outside looking in, but it seems to me that Alabama did better without that player being a part of it, so they could evaluate Alabama, even at a much more favorable light now that he’s not there, because they have played better post that player being there versus before.”
Charles McClelland, SWAC commissioner + former NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee Vice Chair
Top 16 reveal
The NCAA Tournament met last week in Indianapolis, putting together a “first-look bracket” roughly a month before Selection Sunday.
While the full bracket wasn’t released, the committee did unveil who were in the top 16, or who would get the top four seeds if the season ended prior to Saturday’s action.
- Michigan
- Duke
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- UConn
- Houston
- Illinois
- Purdue
- Florida
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Gonzaga
- Texas Tech
- Michigan State
- Vanderbilt
- Virginia
While the rest of the seed lines were not revealed, many people believe Alabama were just on the outside of that top 16. Newton confirmed that Monday.
“A lot of great conversation in the room about that… A lot of conversation about Vanderbilt, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas. Alabama, Arkansas, as we went through the scrubbing process, ended up being just on the edge of that.
“Virginia was who Alabama was compared to at that time. And Virginia has only three losses, and then they’ve got four road wins in the top of Quad 1. So as we looked at kind of what their whole body of work was, we just felt like at this point in time that they were deserving of that final 16 seed… But again, the beauty of this is, we still got about 800 college basketball games to play between now and the tournament. So there’s going to be there’ll be some movement.”
Martin Newton, current NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee Vice Chair
According to the latest bracket projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Alabama is now a 4 seed after Saturday’s win over LSU.
Auburn basketball on the bubble
With a recent five-game losing streak, Auburn has found itself closer to the bubble than it would have liked.
The Tigers got a big last-second win over Kentucky on Saturday, bringing some relief to fans and giving a boost to the team’s resume.
According to Lunardi, Auburn is currently a 10 seed in the tournament but there’s not much room for error moving forward.
While Newton did not want to say whether the Tigers were in the committee’s field last week, he did speak on their resume up to this point.
“Auburn stands there (among the bubble teams). They’re right there where they need to be, right? They still, they, you know, it’s typical of them. You can play your way in, you can play your way out. I mean, Auburn’s strength of schedule, it’s been fantastic this year. Their metrics are really good because of that strength of schedule. You know, like any team, they’ve got to win some games. They’ve got to win some close games.”
Martin Newton, current NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee Vice Chair
Potential NCAA Tournament expansion
While this year’s tournament will feature 68 teams again, there is plenty of expansion talk as the NCAA prepares to add teams to the field.
McClelland, who spent four years as vice chair of the committee, said he anticipates the tournament will expand but by how many teams and when it will be implemented still needs to be decided.
“When you do expand, it will change the overall dynamic… if you’re going to expand from 68 to 72, that’ll be one set of problems. If you go to 76, that’s a different set of problems. If you go to 84, that’s another set of problems.”
Charles McClelland, SWAC commissioner + former NCAA Men’s Tournament Selection Committee Vice Chair
The additional teams would be added on the bottom end of the field and it could impact both at-large bids and auto-bid teams. The conversation has been ongoing for years with television commitment, team revenue, location and more.
“We talked about that a year and a half into my tenure, a year and a half post, and that is the reason why you have not seen it move that quickly. It is a very convoluted process, and you just can’t automatically add four teams, or eight teams, or 12 teams, and just play the games. There’s logistics… There are a lot of very serious issues. It’s not just as quick as snapping your hand, say we’re going to add additional teams. “
Charles McClelland
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