Women’s basketball bracketology: What if the bracket was perfectly balanced?

Debbie Antonelli has some takes. You should listen.

When the NCAA women’s basketball committee revealed its top 16 teams and their projected corresponding regions on Monday, Antonelli took issue with geography taking priority over balance in bracketing. While the committee, in reality, does try to keep the bracket relatively balanced, it does use geography as its primary tool when placing teams. It’s how we ended up with the top two teams in the RPI (Baylor and Notre Dame) in the same region. It’s how Mississippi State, the weakest 1 seed, was paired with two teams (Miami and Oregon State) outside of the RPI top 20.

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Antonelli’s solution: Bracket based primarily on the S-Curve (true seeds), go from four regions to one, and play the Sweet 16/Elite Eight in Las Vegas.

So that’s what I tried to envision. Only I took it a step further.

Using the NCAA’s top 16, plus my remaining teams ranked 17-64 as they stood on Monday, I created a single-region S-Curve-only bracket. That means no moving teams based on conference affiliation. No shying away from regular season rematches. No hesitation to send teams across the country. None of that.

I paired No. 1 overall with No. 64 overall, No. 2 with No. 63, No. 3 with No. 62, etc.

I kept the first two rounds at campus sites and I kept the Final Four in Tampa (though you could convince me that the Final Four should be in Vegas as well).

Here’s the whole darn thing. We call it the Debbie Antonelli Invitational:

Again, this is all based on results up until Monday. So games since then aren’t factored in. Still, it should give you a good picture of what this could look like.

Las Vegas as a Sweet 16/Elite Eight host would be fantastic for a number of reasons, but it also does pose a logistical challenge: As a Pacific time zone city, it’s not practical to play four Sweet 16 games in a day from a single location without forcing teams to play elimination games before noon. The ideal would have been to allow fans to watch every Sweet 16 game in its entirety. So here’s what we do instead:

The top half of the bracket will play its Sweet 16 games at Thomas & Mack Arena on UNLV’s campus. The bottom half will be a 10 minute drive away at the T-Mobile Arena. The Sweet 16 will play out over two nights, just like it is now, with two games each starting at 4 p.m. ET and 6:30 p.m. ET. The Elite Eight will be over the next two nights, with the start times staggered so fans can watch both.

Here’s what it would look like if seeds held through the first weekend:

Thomas & Mack Arena, Night 1:

1. Baylor vs. 4. Miami
2. NC State vs. 3 Marquette

T-Mobile Arena, Night 1:

1. Oregon vs. 4. Gonzaga
2. Notre Dame vs. 3. Maryland

Thomas & Mack Arena, Night 2:

1. Mississippi State vs. 4 South Carolina
2. UConn vs. 3. Oregon State

T-Mobile Arena, Night 2:

1. Louisville vs. 4. Iowa State
2. Stanford vs. 3. Iowa

Thomas & Mack Arena, Night 3:

1. Baylor vs. 2. NC State

T-Mobile Arena, Night 3:

1. Oregon vs. 2. Notre Dame

Thomas & Mack Arena, Night 4:

1. Mississippi State vs. 2. UConn

T-Mobile Arena, Night 4:

1. Louisville vs. 2. Stanford

So four nights in Vegas. Who’s in?