For the first time ever, the NCAA’s men’s basketball selection committee revealed an early look at the top 16 teams in their field ahead of the actual Selection Sunday. Perhaps this is inspired by college football’s College Football Playoff weekly rankings, but fortunately, this will be the only time the selection committee lets college hoops fans in behind the closed doors. But if you needed another reminder that college football and college basketball are apples and oranges, you need look no further than the release of the top 16 teams in men’s basketball, according to the bracket.
If the #MarchMadness started today...here are the Top 16 Overall Seeds as of today. #BracketPreview pic.twitter.com/gdG464GIhl
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) February 11, 2017
If this were a football tournament, then you might like Florida State’s or Louisville’s chances (heck, you might even like their basketball chances right now too). Two of the top seeds do not play FBS football (Villanova and Gonzaga), and neither does a third top 16 program (Butler). Just one school that played in a New Years Six bowl game this past season managed to crack the top 16 of the bracket preview (Louisville), although Wisconsin fans surely feel they deserved a little more respect from the basketball committee. Six of the programs in the top 16 with an FBS program failed to reach a postseason bowl game (Arizona, Duke, Kansas, Oregon, UCLA and Virginia).
They also won’t cut the nets down in Lawrence when Kansas beats Texas.
We are a few weeks away from finding out what schools will get to play in the basketball tournament. Then we will see what schools manage to double-dip on the postseason fun this year. Odds are we may not have a school that claims both an FBS conference championship and a men’s basketball championship, but you never know. Here’s how the FBS conference champions currently fare on the basketball court this season:
For fun, how the schools that won a FBS conference title in 2016 are faring in men's college basketball right now: pic.twitter.com/Y6VpqxyHkv
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) February 11, 2017
Arkansas State would appear to have the best shot at a conference title among the teams listed above.