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Selection Sunday and Daylight Savings Time falling on the same day? It truly is the greatest day of the year.
Though we think that most of our readers know by now what March Madness and Selection Sunday are, we thought we'd put together a quick primer on what to expect today.
What is Selection Sunday?
Selection Sunday, which will be known as a national holiday on some future, unknown, undetermined date, maybe, is the day on which a 10-person selection committee decides who are the 68 teams that will participate in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament to determine the national champions. The whole process, beginning with Selection Sunday and ending with the national title game, is affectionately referred to as "March Madness," a trademarked term, the usage for which I'll probably get fined if the NCAA lawyers find me.
Who's on this selection committee?
The Committee consists of ten athletics directors across the country. It's chaired by Oklahoma's Joseph R. Castiglione, and also includes: Joe Alleva (LSU), Janet Cone (UNC Asheville), Tom Holmoe (BYU), Mark Hollis (Michigan State), Bernard Muir (Stanford), Bruce Rasmussen (Creighton), Peter Roby (Northwestern), Jim Schaus (Ohio University), and Kevin White (Duke).
Duke! No UVA?! DISRESPECT!
Well actually, Virginia's Craig Littlepage served on the committee from 2002-2007, and in fact chaired the committee during the 2005-2006 season.
OK back to Selection Sunday. What should I expect?
The way it typically works is that, near the start of the show, the Committee will reveal the four overall No. 1 seeds. Of the 68 teams selected, 60 of them will be assigned to one of four regions (South, West, Midwest, East), and assigned a 1-16 seed within that region, leaving four seeds open. The remaining eight teams will be paired up and will play for one of the remaining four seeds in what's known as "The First Four" games.
So the Committee reveals the four overall No. 1 seeds. Some talking heads (Greg Gumbel as host, along with Clark Kellogg, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Seth Davis and Doug Gottlieb) will analyze those four and take some guesses as to who might be No. 2 and whether they deserved a No. 1 seed instead.
Afterwards, region by region, they'll go through and reveal the remaining 2-16 seeds, including the First Four. Once all four regions are revealed, they'll continue to talk about who got snubbed, who has the hardest path, and so forth. The whole show will last about two hours, and then everyone switches over to ESPN to continue soaking in knowledge.
What seed will Virginia get?
That's a tough question. If Virginia had beaten North Carolina last night in the ACC Tournament finals, they would almost certainly be receiving a one-seed. In Streaking the Lawn's latest projections, we still view the Hoos as a one-seed. At the time of publishing this, ESPN's Joe Lunardi agrees. But there are other factors involved here, looking at other conference tournaments that are still happening, and comparing resumes and records. Virginia's record, 26-7, is pretty good, but Villanova, for example, is 29-5. That said, Villanova has only gone 4-4 against RPI Top 25 teams, compared to Virginia's 8-2. And what about Oregon? They have a 27-6 record and have gone 5-1 against the RPI Top 25. Overall though, Virginia's strength of schedule is ranked 12th, while Oregon's is just 25th. See how things get tricky?
How can I watch?
The Selection Sunday show is being broadcast exclusively on CBS, NCAA.com, and the March Madness Live app on your phone.
Start time: 5:30 p.m. Eastern
TV: CBS
Online streaming: NCAA.com
App streaming: March Madness Live app