COLUMN: The Best NCAA Tournament Bracket in a Long, Long Time

From where I’m sitting, this is the best NCAA tournament bracket in years. The committee did their job the right way.

There are plenty of people who will disagree with my assessment and that’s fine. Let me tell you how I came to this conclusion.

First and foremost, the committee was consistent throughout the bracket. In an interview on ESPN following the selections and in a chat with Extra Inning Softball later on Sunday night, committee chairperson Sandy Atkins referenced the importance of the “body of work” for teams. In essence, the committee chose to reward teams for their overall performance and season-long efforts instead of focusing too solely on head-to-head matchups or specific metrics.

That’s the right call; even if I don’t agree with UCLA being seeded ahead of Arizona State – in reverse order of how the two teams finished in the PAC-12 standings – I can appreciate that UCLA’s overall body of work, particularly in non-conference play, gives them an edge over the Sun Devils.

The “body of work” criterion showed itself across the bracket. Florida State seeded ahead of Virginia Tech; Clemson seeded ahead of Duke; Washington and Florida both earning top-16 seeds, but on the high-teens end of the list. If we’re using a full-picture lens to view each of these teams, every one of those seedings was the right call.

Of the teams chosen for at-large bids, not a single true mid-major team was selected for the tournament. In fact, South Florida and Wichita State – both out of the American conference – were the only non-Power 5 teams to receive at-large bids.

In the many different things that my job requires, one of the aspects that I enjoy the most is getting to champion mid-major teams. Some of the best softball anywhere is in the mid-major ranks, I firmly do and will always believe. I created the mid-major top 10 to be able to add some extra recognition to those in the mid-major ranks that otherwise might not get it.

Mid-major teams – or non-Power 5 teams or however you want to refer to them – were the biggest snubs on Sunday night, but for the first time in a decade, this is a year where none of the snubbed teams had a clear-cut case to make the field over someone else. The Bubble – as we said for weeks ahead of the selection show – was weak; that manifested itself on Sunday night. If the tournament took the best 64 teams in the country, it would have included many of those very same mid-major programs – unfortunately, with automatic qualifiers in play, that isn’t the case and some teams are going to have much tougher Mondays because of it.

Teams like Charlotte or Western Kentucky absolutely deserved a spot in the postseason if the criterion were the true best 64 teams in the game; there is zero doubt, in anyone’s mind, about that, including the committee’s. When it came down to the final couple of spots, would I personally have chosen WKU or Charlotte over an Oregon State or a Wisconsin? Very possibly, perhaps even likely. But the committee didn’t and I can’t find an absolutely-damnable reason to fault them for that decision.

Switching gears, we can’t talk tournament bracket without some superlatives. I tweeted some quick thoughts shortly after the selection show on Sunday night, including the following characterizations:

Quick superlatives (column to come later):

Best regional: Arkansas
Easiest regional: Northwestern
Toughest regional: Virginia Tech
Top pitching regional: Alabama
Top hitting regional: Arkansas

— Justin McLeod (@justfactsmaam) May 16, 2022

Arkansas’ regional includes Oregon and Wichita State in the #2-#3 seed matchup; that’s a tough draw for the twice-over SEC champions. There will be a LOT of home runs flying out of Bogle Park this weekend.

Northwestern’s regional has some good talent in it, but the Wildcats are my pick for the easiest road to a Super Regional berth. On the opposite end of that spectrum, ACC regular-season champions Virginia Tech got a tough draw in their home regional, with Kentucky and Miami Ohio headed to Blacksburg with an upset on their minds.

Onto more superlatives!

Best pitching: Tuscaloosa Regional

Best hitting: Fayetteville Regional

Best 4 seed: UMBC

Best 1st-round matchup: San Diego State vs. LSU

Upset alert: Duke, Arizona State

Overrated seed: UCLA

Underrated seed: Tennessee

Best unseeded team: Nebraska