Originally Posted by
DukeWarhead
Looking at all the projected bracketts from the NCAA (knowing that they don't mean much) it has made me really start to think there is something to the notion of the new level of parity in the NCAA.
There just don't seem to be any easy second round match-ups for 1 or 2 seeds anymore. It seems like just a few years ago that being a 1,2,3, or 4 seed meant that you had a pretty easy path to the sweet sixteen. It surely doesn't seem that way anymore.
Maybe I'm not really looking far back enough, but I do think that your 7,8, and 9 seeded teams tend to be stronger these days than they were perhaps 5 so years ago.
Am I just imagining it? Does the tourney committee intentionally put teams from major conferences in the 7-9 seeds?
As a 1 or 2 seed, I'd much rather see an upstart Mid-Major (e.g. Oral Roberts) than a mid-range from a large conference (e.g. Vanderbilt) in the second round.
(Then again, I guess it was an upstart from a Mid-Major that ended our season last year...)
Bottomline: The days of a cakewalk to the sweet sixteen are over, (if they ever really existed)