Does the committee do their seeding solely on season performance thus far, or does the "eye test" come into it at all?
Say Purdue keeps going how they have been and are a lock for a 1 seed, BUT Edey gets hurt on Saturday or Sunday of the BTT and will be out for the dance. Clearly Purdue isn't deserving of a 1 seed without him. So do they seed them based on the team they have been all year, or based on the team that they will actually be fielding for the tournament?
I realize this is a very specific and highly unlikely hypothetical exercise, but I'm just curious how you all think they'd handle something like this. I think they'd have to still give them a 1 based on the record because it's the safe thing to do, even if they are no where near a top 4 team without their best player.
The NCAA’s guide to how the 68 teams are chosen, seeded and bracketed for the Division I men's basketball tournament every season.
www.ncaa.com
The following is a snippet:
"
NCAA EVALUATION TOOL (NET)
The NET is one of many resources/tools available to the committee in the selection, seeding and bracketing process. Computer models cannot accurately evaluate qualitative factors such as games missed by key players or coaches, travel difficulties and other effects of specific games.
Each committee member independently evaluates a vast amount of information during the process to make individual decisions. It is these qualitative, quantitative and subjective opinions -- developed after hours of personal observations, discussion with coaches, directors of athletics and commissioners, and review and comparison of various data -- that each individual ultimately will determine their vote on all issues related to selections, seeding and bracketing.
The NET has two components: the Team Value Index, which is based on game results and factors the result, the game location and outcome. The other component is net efficiency (offensive efficiency minus defensive efficiency), which is adjusted to account for the strength of the opponent and the location of the game.
Each December, the NCAA will release the first official NET rankings, and then post those daily at
www.ncaa.com.
"
Based on this, a key injury may have an impact on seeding, but naturally the Purdue hypothetical, that body of work would still dictate a #1 seed, but it would be a blessing for whatever 8/9 seed gets matched in their region. Also, by that point, the bracket is practically already finished by Saturday of B1G Tourney, so an injury at that point would probably not change much. Let's say it happens during Illini game in last game of reg season, and then Purdue loses early in B1G Tourney without Edey, then maybe the seeding will be impacted.
