Big 12 pulls off a top-seed double in NCAA Tournament. How often has that happened?
The Big 12 supplies half of the favorites to reach the men’s Final Four.
Kansas and Baylor, which shared the conference championship, are No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks are in the Midwest Region, the Bears in the East.
Gonzaga is the overall top seed and looks for a second straight Final Four appearance from the West Region. Arizona is the top seed in the South. Kansas is the third overall seed, Baylor fourth. The Bears defeated Gonzaga in last year’s championship game.
It’s the second time the Big 12 produced multiple top seeds. It happened in 2003 with Texas and Oklahoma. The Longhorns advanced to the Final Four. KU reached the championship game that year as a No. 2.
This year’s No. 2 seeds: Duke, Villanova, Kentucky and Auburn. Texas Tech, Tennessee, Purdue and Wisconsin are third seeds. The fourth seeds are Arkansas, Illinois, UCLA and Providence.
Sunday’s bracket reveal included the usual amount of surprises and disappointments. SEC Tournament champion Tennessee could gripe about being a No. 3 seed.
The Vols own 11 Quad-1 victories, second only to Kansas’ 12. Tennessee collected its second victory of the season over Kentucky in the SEC Tournament and defeated Auburn late in the regular season. The Wildcats and Tigers were better seeded than the Vols.
Not in the field is Texas A&M, which fell to the Vols in the title game on Sunday, and Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork took to social media to express his disappointment.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to figure out,” Bjork posted on his Twitter account. “This a flawed selection process if we do not reward teams who deserve an opportunity.”
The Aggies were one the last four teams out along with Dayton, Oklahoma and SMU. The Sooners earned a No. 1 seed in the NIT and will host Missouri State at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.
“All of these teams kept us very busy down the stretch,” said Tom Burnett, chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball committee.
The last four in: Indiana, Notre Dame, Rutgers and Wyoming.
Two of those final teams in the bracket are from the Big Ten, which has the most teams in the field with nine. The Big 12, SEC and Big East each landed six.
The first four out are on alert. Starting with Dayton, they would become replacement teams if one withdraws because of COVID-19.
But the pandemic doesn’t hang over this year’s tournament as it did last year, when the entire event was played in Indiana. At least that one was played. The 2020 tournament was scrapped.
This year, major conference tournament results expand the numbers of teams feeling confident entering this week. Virginia Tech, seeded seventh in the ACC Tournament, upset top-seeded Duke for the championship. It’s likely the Hokies, a No. 11 seed this week, wouldn’t have made the field without receiving the league’s automatic bid.
Tennessee and Villanova won their conference tournaments from second seed positions.
The Big 12, the only conference to advance a team to the Final Four in each of the last three tournaments, has top seeded teams for the 14th time since 1997. Five times, one of those teams reached the Final Four: Kansas in 2002, 2008 and 2018, Texas in 2003, and Baylor last season.
The Jayhawks are a top seed for the 15th time in program history. That breaks a tie with Duke for the second most No. 1 seeds, and KU trails only North Carolina with 17. The seeding process started in 1979.
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Big 12 pulls off a top-seed double in NCAA Tournament. How often has that happened?."