Selection committee failed miserably with Middle Tennessee-Minnesota seeding
The NCAA tournament selection committee faces a very tough job each year, trying to successfully seed 68 teams and put each program where they belong.
Now that we have laid down the softening qualifier, someone needs to be fired for the seeding in Thursday's Middle Tennessee-Minnesota contest.
Despite being cast as the 12-seed, Middle Tennessee entered play on Thursday as a 1.5-point FAVORITE. That wasn't a typo, the 12-seed was actually favored over the 5-seed.
Just for reference sake, here's the rest of the point spreads for the 5-12 matchup:
| 5-seed | 12-seed | Point Spread |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | UNC Wilmington | -7.5 |
| Notre Dame | Princeton | -6.5 |
| Iowa State | Nevada | -6 |
| Minnesota | Middle Tennessee | +1.5 |
First let's tackle why Middle Tennessee should have been higher than a 12-seed.
They finished their season 30-4 and won both the Conference-USA regular season and tournament titles. While many people will quickly point to the fact they don't belong to a major conference, the Blue Raiders have shown they can hang with the big boys in the past two seasons.
DAMN: Middle Tennessee is now 5-0 the past two seasons vs. the SEC and the Big Ten, winning those five games by an average of 12.6 points 😮
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 16, 2017
In fact, it was just last season that Middle Tennessee knocked off Michigan State as a 15-seed in the most shocking upset of the tournament. Almost every single player returned for the Blue Raiders and it showed throughout the contest.
Now let's get to Minnesota receiving a 5-seed.
The Golden Gophers had a remarkable turnaround this season under Richard Pitino, finishing 24-9, good for fourth in the Big Ten standings. Minnesota was able to beat Michigan State in the conference tournament before falling to Michigan in the semifinals.
Despite this, they were still given the second-highest seed of any Big Ten program, trailing only No. 4 Purdue. Minnesota finished the season behind Maryland and Wisconsin, lost both matchups to the Badgers this season, and split with the Terrapins. Somehow the committee saw fit to reward the Golden Gophers with a 5-seed.
That decision blew up in their face on Thursday, as the Blue Raiders dominated Minnesota throughout the contest, emerging with a nine-point win to advance to the second round.
Many applauded the selection committee following the bracket release for a job well done, and while the majority of their picks look strong, the failure in the Middle Tennessee-Minnesota seeding will standout as a massive mistake.