NCAA Team Sheets: Virginia Cavaliers

With football season finally over, it is time we turn our attention to NCAA Tournament. This season, the NCAA has instituted a few changes to the information the NCAA Tournament selection committee views when selecting and placing teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Gone are the days of the selection committee picking arbitrary cutoffs for games. The team sheets the selection committee receives will no longer place games into categories for games against Top 50, Top 100, Top 200, and 201+.

Instead, the games teams play will be placed into four “Quadrants” with the qualifying factors for each quadrant varying.

In the past, an away game against a team with an RPI of 60 was treated the same as a home game, or a neutral game, even though everyone knew playing on the road is much harder.

The new team sheets break down games like this:
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30; Neutral 1-50; Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75; Neutral 51-100; Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160; Neutral 101-200; Away 136-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-plus; Neutral 201-plus; Away 241-plus.

Here’s what UVa’s team sheet should look like after last night’s 64-48 win at Georgia Tech:

So far, UVa has had a great season amassing a 17-1 record. Fortunately, the Hoos won’t be anchored by a myriad of games in Quadrant 4 from their out of conference schedule, but as you can see, there aren’t many games in Quadrant 1 either.

(Don’t worry UVa Faithful, that will change over the coming weeks with ACC play)

Each week until Selection Sunday we’ll take a look at UVa’s Team Sheet and the changes from the previous week, as well as any teams possibly changing quadrants in the upcoming week.

As for this coming week, Wake Forest currently sits at 131 in the RPI, so because it is a road game, it could fall in Quadrant 2, but if Wake slips anymore, that game could fall to Quad 3. On the other hand, Clemson is currently at #6 in the RPI. Even if Clemson loses to Notre Dame on Saturday, they won’t fall enough to move that game from Quadrant 1.

Also, Georgia Tech plays UNC, FSU, and Clemson over their next three games. Even if the Yellow Jackets lose those games, their RPI could see a bump, which could move last night’s game to Quadrant 2.

That’s how the Cavaliers are viewed in the eyes of the selection committee this week, we’ll take a look again next week