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Final Four teams should be reseeded to avoid what is happening on Saturday.
The NCAA Selection Committee not only assigns seeds 1 through 16 for each of the four regions. It also seeds the entire field, 1 through 68.
So that should allow them to reseed the Final Four for competitive semifinal matchups that would feed the best possible championship game.
San Diego State and Florida Atlantic are no-names and not Power 5 schools and their overall seeds reflect that. The Aztecs are the No. 17 seed overall. FAU is No. 33. Connecticut is the No. 13 and Miami is 20.
So if the seeds were adjusted for semifinals matching the lower versus the higher remaining seeds, odds are it would make for a better championship game and create more excitement than one with a heavy favorite.
If reseeded, the games would be UConn versus FAU and Miami playing San Diego State. Cinderellas are for semifinals, and The U versus UConn on Monday night would be far more anticipated by a wider audience.
Probably the most mismatched championship game was in 2004 with UConn playing Georgia Tech from the ACC. Now, the Jackets made a nice run after being seeded third in the Midwest region and did beat No. 4 seed Kansas in the regional final before edging Oklahoma State on Final Four Saturday.
The 31-6 Duke Blue Devils were ranked in the top three all season long and had J.J. Redick, Luol Deng, Shelden Williams and Chris Duhon in their lineup. Despite losing one of three games against Georgia Tech during the ACC season, Duke was a better team and would have had an enormous psychological advantage over the Jackets, who had not been to a Final Four since 1990.
Instead, the UConn-Duke semifinal continued an intense 15-year rivalry in which they had met several times in the NCAA
Tournament, including the 1999 national championship classic in St. Petersburg.
The Huskies had another doozie against Duke that Saturday in San Antonio. The Devils led most of the way but fell to a furious UConn comeback in the 79-78 thriller. Imagine that game on Monday night.
Rather, the nation got Connecticut beating Georgia Tech by nine points in a far less-interesting final game of the season.
Now, not all Final Four pairings have games that would have been better suited for the final. But if the committee changed that slight rule and allowed reseeding of the last four teams standing, they would up the chances of having a close, highly regarded championship match-up for a huge TV audience.
The U versus UConn would not make Monday night anti-climactic.
Featured image via Associated Press/David J. Phillip
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