NCAA tournament 2012: How did those teams get in?

The University of South Florida’s selection was equally unusual – particularly when teams like Drexel who, before losing in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament final, hadn’t lost a game since January 2^nd, and had 27 wins in all. And even though their SOS was only 248, Drexel was certainly more proficient than Iona – another squad whose selection was a head-scratcher. Iona’s conference SOS was 266, and they had two fewer wins than Drexel.

Those who favor “power” conferences over so-called “mid-major” teams bemoan the fact that there are more mid-majors getting bids to the tournament than ever before – and as they see it, diluting its quality. But seemingly forever, power conference schools have stacked the deck against those teams by dictating onerous terms, including making the smaller schools travel to them for non-conference games. Such teams often receive a fee for agreeing to those terms, but those who decline them usually won’t get put on the schedule.

Also refuting the power conference canard in recent years has been the superior play of teams like Butler University out of the Horizon League, who appeared in back-to-back championship games in 2010 and 2011. Gonzaga (seeded seventh in the East region) and its fellow West Coast Conference (WCC) regular season opponent, St. Mary’s (seeded seventh in the Midwest region), have been perennial upstarts – not to mention the past runs of well-coached mid-majors like George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth, who have both gone deep in the tournament in recent years. Mid-majors have more than earned their place in this tournament – and really should be given added consideration over mediocre big conference teams.

But all told, at the highest levels (first through the fourth seeds), this appears to be a very strong field. No. 1 seed Syracuse appears to have a fairly straight-forward road to the East regional final – an encounter with either No. 2 Ohio State or surging No. 3 Florida State being the only potential impediment to reaching the Final Four.

North Carolina, No. 1 in the Midwest region, has a slightly more difficult schedule, where they would likely face either Georgetown or Kansas in that region’s concluding contest. The West is top seed Michigan State’s to lose. They are playing their best basketball of the year now, and even with possible late-round games against perennially strong Louisville or Marquette, they should move comfortably through the field to what would be a thrilling game against No. 2 Missouri for another Final Four berth. Kentucky, the tournament's overall No. 1 seed from the South region, should, if events go favorably for them, likewise travel to New Orleans, with no real major threats coming until the latter regional rounds: No. 2 Duke, third-seeded Baylor or perhaps even a dark-horse contender like highly athletic No. 5 Wichita State among those.

There are always potential pitfalls awaiting the regional giants along the Final Four odyssey, which begins tonight with two of the four play-in games broadcast on truTV at 6:30 p.m. ET. Regardless, this tournament promises to deliver three weeks of frenetic excitement culminating with a national champion in New Orleans on April 2^nd.

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