The NCAA Tournament selection committee begins five days of meetings Wednesday in Indianapolis to decide the field of 68 and the seeding for the teams.
The first order of business is to take a vote to add the first batch of teams into the field. Each member votes for no more than 36 teams that it believes should be in the tournament right now, with no further discussion. Any team receiving no less than all but three of the eligible votes is in the tournament. Some of those teams may later become automatic qualifiers.
Each committee member also submits a ballot of teams it feels merits consideration for an at-large berth in the tournament. There is no limit to how many teams can be on these ballots. Any team receiving at least four votes on either ballot goes on the "under consideration" board, along with any regular season conference champions that have not won automatic qualification and were not already added to the field.
Then the real work begins of selecting and seeding the field. It is a very thorough process, which is why it takes five days.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
When the committee gets to it, one part will be easy. Gonzaga will be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament after defeating Saint Mary's to win the West Coast Conference Tournament on Tuesday night. The Gaels will be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament as well.
Jacksonville State clinched the ASUN's spot in the NCAA Tournament last night while sitting around on their couches and eating pizza. Presumably. We do not actually know what the members of the team were up to, but it was not winning in a conference tournament game. That's what Bellarmine was doing, but because the Knights are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament, the Gamecocks, as the regular season champion, will move on to the field.
The Patriot League title will be decided Wednesday between Colgate and Navy. After that, we will have to wait until Saturday for another automatic bid to be awarded..
