NCAA Women’s Basketball Bracketology: Let’s all fight over true seeds

Louisville:

1. Louisville (ACC)
16. Grambling (SWAC)

8. Oregon State
9. Missouri

Iowa City:

5. South Dakota (Summit)
12. Dayton (Atlantic 10)

4. Iowa (Big Ten)
13. Harvard (Ivy)

The difference between the No. 1 overall and No. 2 overall seeds rarely matters, but here it kind of does. By being placed first into the bracket, Louisville gets to go to its nearest geographical regional, which is Chicago — less than 300 miles from campus. That knocks Notre Dame, the second 1 seed, all the way to Greensboro. If the Irish had been able to go to Chicago, that would have been an under two-hour drive for a loyal fan base. If only there was a way to determine which team was better and if only we’d get to see that play out in real time on TV sometime soon…

Ames:

6. Miami
11. Tulane

3. Iowa State
14. Troy (Sun Belt)

Eugene:

7. South Dakota State
10. Michigan

2. Oregon
15. Mercer (Southern)

Though USF dropped out of the field this week, Tulane hangs on for dear life as one of the last four in. The Green Wave have now won five straight and are 2-0 in the American. Their loss to Alabama in the non-conference stings, but it will be interesting to watch how their win at LSU ages. The Tigers just beat Texas A&M and have also won at Florida State.

Oregon’s placement in the Chicago region is unfortunate given that Portland is a regional host, but Stanford has the fourth 1 seed and got the nod for that site. Committee rules dictate that unless it is unavoidable, the top four teams from a conference, if they are on the top four seed lines, shall not be placed in the same region.