I find this article interesting, presenting an argument to do away with the selection committee and just pick tournament teams based on an objective measure of accomplishment:
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/article249265095.html
This article suggests using the "Wins over bubble" statistic, but I've seen arguments for just using the strength of record metric, which measures how strong a team's wins and how weak their losses are.
Taking a quick look at that, let's see how the bracket looks right now based on those two metrics.
WAB:
https://barttorvik.com/?sort=34&beg...limit=All&year=2021&top=0&hteam=&quad=5&rpi=#
Interestingly here, at the top, Michigan and Ohio State are rated above Baylor, due to the better wins on their schedules (helped by the fact that Ohio State has played 5 more games than Baylor and Michigan). The at-large quality tournament teams are, in order:
1 seeds: 1) Gonzaga - 2) Michigan - 3) Ohio State - 4) Baylor
2 seeds: 5) Illinois - 6) Alabama - 7) Iowa - 8) West Virginia
3 seeds: 9) Villanova - 10) Clemson - 11) Kansas - 12) Virginia
4 seeds: 13) USC - 14) Creighton - 15) Arkansas - 16) Florida State
5 seeds: 17) Purdue - 18) Wisconsin - 19) Oklahoma - 20) BYU
6 seeds: 21) Houston - 22) Missouri - 23) UCLA - 24) Drake
7 seeds: 25) Virginia Tech - 26) North Carolina - 27) Oregon - 28) Texas
8 seeds: 29) Tennessee - 30) Wichita State - 31) Oklahoma State - 32) LSU
9 seeds: 33) Colorado - 34) Louisville - 35) Boise State - 36) Rutgers
10 seeds: 37) Loyola Chicago - 38) VCU - 39) Belmont - 40) St. Bonaventure
11 seeds: 41) Florida - 42) Texas Tech - 43) Minnesota - 44) Colorado State
12 seeds: 45) Maryland - 49) Winthrop - 50) Western Kentucky
Last 4 in: 46) San Diego State - 47) SMU - 48) Xavier - 51) Indiana
First 4 out: Seton Hall, Syracuse, Connecticut, Richmond
Next 4 out: Navy, Michigan State, Stanford, Colgate
If we go by Strength of Record instead, the bracket looks more like:
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bpi/_/dir/asc/view/overview/sort/sorrank
1 seeds: 1) Gonzaga - 2) Baylor - 3) Michigan - 4) Ohio State
2 seeds: 5) Illinois - 6) Alabama - 7) West Virginia - 8) Villanova
3 seeds: 9) Iowa - 10) Clemson - 11) Kansas - 12) Florida State
4 seeds: 13) Oklahoma - 14) Virginia - 15) Creighton - 16) USC
5 seeds: 17) Arkansas - 18) Missouri - 19) Wisconsin - 20) Virginia Tech
6 seeds: 21) Purdue - 22) Texas - 23) Houston - 24) BYU
7 seeds: 25) UCLA - 26) North Carolina - 27) Oregon - 28) LSU
8 seeds: 29) Tennessee - 30) Oklahoma State - 31) Rutgers - 32) Texas Tech
9 seeds: 33) Louisville - 34) Drake - 35) Wichita State - 36) Minnesota
10 seeds: 37) Florida - 38) Colorado - 39) Boise State - 40) St. Bonaventure
11 seeds: 41) Xavier - 42) VCU - 43) Belmont - 44) Maryland
12 seeds 45) SMU - 46) Western Kentucky - 50) Winthrop
Last 4 in: 47) Indiana - 48) Loyola Chicago - 49) Colorado State - 51) UConn