2021 March Madness: Which teams got screwed by the Selection Committee?

It has been two years since we last had a bracket to fill out but March Madness is back and, naturally, there are some fan bases upset with how things played out.

Like every year, there were snubs, questionable seeding and regions that appear to be a much more difficult road than others.

Here is a look at which teams got screwed over by the Selection Committee:

There is always at least one team that gets snubbed and this year that happens to be Louisville.

The Cardinals went 13-7 this year and finished 7^th in the ACC, so they were certainly a bubble team, but many bracket gurus were projecting them as a last four in team. When you look at their strength of schedule versus other at-large or play-in teams, such as Wichita State and Syracuse, Louisville’s was much tougher yet they did not get the nod.

Louisville fans and others were quick to jump to conspiracies on social media, too, pointing to the fact that the selection committee chairman is the University of Kentucky athletic director.

While Louisville drew the first team out card, its former head coach Rick Pitino is back in the tournament with Iona as a 15-seed after leading the Gaels to a MAAC tournament title.

The darlings of the 2018 NCAA Tournament are back, but like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect.

Three years after a Cinderella Final Four run as an 11-seed, Loyola Chicago returns as an 8-seed, but even that seems a bit unfair. The KenPom rankings put the Ramblers as the ninth-best team in the country.

Sure, they play in the lesser Missouri Valley Conference, so their strength of schedule obviously does not match up with others, but 8 still feels awfully low for a team that, per KenPom, has the best defensive efficiency in the country.

As if the 8-seed is not tough enough of a draw for Loyola, it faces a Georgia Tech team coming off an ACC tournament win. If the Ramblers get past Georgia Tech, they have a formidable No. 1 seed in Illinois up next in what might be the toughest region in the bracket.

Ok, ok, a No. 1 seed cannot really get “screwed” by the committee, but there is no doubt about it that Illinois has the toughest road to the Final Four among all the top seeds.

The Fighting Illini will have their hands full in the Round of 32 with the winner of Georgia Tech and Loyola Chicago. While we previously listed Loyola Chicago as a team that got screwed, it certainly has the capability to upset Illinois if the two meet.

Should Illinois advance to the Sweet 16, it might have Tennessee staring down at them next. The Volunteers, like Loyola Chicago, boast one of the top defenses in the country, per KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating.

If Illinois can emerge from the gauntlet that is the Midwest Region, the remaining teams in their way should beware because they will most certainly have been battle-tested if they get to the Final Four.

These two teams are grouped together because they are going up against each other in one of the First Four play-in games. It feels as if network executives got a hold of the committee on this one so they can have two of the sport’s most storied programs face each other despite both having a strong case to deserve a “bye.”

While Michigan State finished just eighth in the Big Ten, it had one of the toughest schedules in the nation and the Spartans picked up some impressive wins on that schedule along the way, with victories over Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State.

Every one of those wins are more impressive than Syracuse’s best victory, for instance.

UCLA does not have as strong an argument as Michigan Stateand losing their last four games certainly did not help. But it does not seem as if the committee was all that impressed with the Pac-12, where the Bruins finished fourth. Oregon, which won the conference, is seeded seventh against VCU.

LSU just put in an impressive showing in the SEC Tournament, falling just short to Alabama, 80-79, in the championship game. Almost beating a team does not really count for much, yet a No. 8 seed still feels a little too low for the Tigers, especially in a dangerous matchup against St. Bonaventure.

The good news is LSU may be a trendy upset pick if they move past the Bonnies to take down Michigan. The Tigers have an offense that can keep pace with anybody, it’s just a matter of how much their defense can hold up against an equally as impressive offense?

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