News / Sports
NCAA Tournament, Florida Gators Named Top Overall Seed; Ohio State, North Carolina, Kansas Awarded #1 Seeds as Well
Despite being the number one team in the country and winning the Big Ten championship Ohio State was unceremoniously bumped by the Florida Gators for the overall number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Gators had been the country’s number one team for several weeks of the year but hit the skids late in the regular season and fell to number six going into the SEC tournament. Florida beat Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas in the SEC tourney. Of those three teams, only Arkansas earned a bid (#12 seed) to the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State, entering the Big Ten Tournament, was the number one team in the country. They went on to beat Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin to win the Big Ten championship. Of those three teams, both Purdue and Wisconsin earned bids to the NCAA Tournament and both have higher seeds that Arkansas, Purdue at #9, Wisconsin at #2.
As a matter of record the Big Ten sent six teams into the NCAA Tournament while the SEC sent five.
So the Gators are the number one seed in the Midwest Region and the Buckeyes of Ohio State are the number one seed in the South Region.
The North Carolina Tar Heels did themselves a huge favor by running through the ACC Tournament and earned themselves a number one seed in the East Region. The Tar Heels benefited from several teams ranked higher than them falling in their conference tournaments.
Number one in the West Region went to the Kansas Jayhawks who finished off a remarkable Big 12 tournament with an overtime thriller against the Texas Longhorns. Kansas was ranked second heading into the Big 12 tournament, trailing only Ohio State in votes.
Earning number two seeds in the NCAA Tournament were, Wisconsin in the Midwest; UCLA in the West; Georgetown in the East; and Memphis in the South.
