Last season, the committee did a
generally poor job of ranking—and, therefore, seeding—the top 8 (missing four of
the Elite Eight) and the top 4 (missing three of the Final Four.)
This season, the committee
figures only one Pac-12 team—USC—will
reach the Elite Eight (compared to four last season), and that no Pac-12 teams
will reach the Final Four (compared to two last year.) In ten short days, we’ll
know whether they figured right.
2010 Final Four: Cal vs. Penn St. [Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann] |
You may have noticed that this
year’s committee completely ignored Nebraska’s
Saturday night loss to Northwestern.
It also overlooked Stanford’s loss
to California and USC’s win over UCLA. Some wonder whether committee members filled out their bracket
Saturday morning and went to Disneyland for the rest of the weekend …
The coaches did not have a poll
this week, so we don’t know how the Nebraska, Stanford and UCLA losses might
have changed their rankings. The final media poll was released this morning.
So … here’s the fun part.
Let’s compare the ability of
the committee, the coaches, the media—and Volleyblog Seattle—to forecast this
season’s Elite Eight and Final Four. The committee's choices are easy to calculate, since its
rankings and seedings were one and the same. For everyone else, we calculated brackets (below) based on expected outcomes using the committee’s seedings. We also remind
you how the Final Four might have looked if the non-committee prognosticators
had been able to seed the bracket themselves.
[Note: When three or more of a prognosticator’s top 16 ranked teams were seeded by the committee into the same
region, one or more of those teams has to drop out before the Elite Eight. For example, both
coaches and media rank Hawai’i in
the top four, but the Rainbow Wahine are stuck behind each poll’s top two
teams, USC and Nebraska. With similar disagreements over seeding for Cal and Penn State, Washington slips into the Elite Eight
in both scenarios.]
Okay … before the first match
is played, share YOUR Elite Eight picks, using the committee’s bracket? Don't forget to tell us who (in order) would be in the Final Four if YOU had seeded this tournament!
Tourney
Seed |
RPI
|
School
|
2011
Record
|
Coaches’
Poll |
Media
Poll |
Volleyblog
Seattle |
1
|
2
|
Texas
|
21-4
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
2
|
4
|
Nebraska
|
24-4
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
3
|
1
|
Illinois
|
27-4
|
7
|
8
|
7
|
4
|
3
|
Iowa
State
|
22-5
|
14
|
14
|
15
|
5
|
6
|
Purdue
|
27-4
|
8
|
7
|
2
|
6
|
5
|
Northern
Iowa
|
32-1
|
12
|
11
|
13
|
7
|
8
|
USC
|
25-4
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
8
|
11
|
Penn
State
|
23-7
|
9
|
9
|
3
|
9
|
15
|
UCLA
|
24-6
|
4
|
5
|
4
|
10
|
7
|
Hawaii
|
29-1
|
3
|
4
|
12
|
11
|
18
|
Stanford
|
21-7
|
6
|
6
|
9
|
12
|
10
|
Florida
St
|
24-6
|
21
|
--
|
--
|
13
|
12
|
Minnesota
|
18-11
|
19
|
19
|
--
|
14
|
9
|
Tennessee
|
27-3
|
15
|
15
|
16
|
15
|
16
|
Pepperdine
|
21-6
|
18
|
16
|
14
|
16
|
17
|
Texas
A&M
|
22-7
|
--
|
--
|
20
|
--
|
29
|
California
|
26-6
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
--
|
35
|
Washington
|
23-7
|
11
|
12
|
8
|
--
|
30
|
Oregon
|
21-9
|
13
|
13
|
11
|
--
|
13
|
Kentucky
|
26-5
|
16
|
17
|
17
|
--
|
20
|
Florida
|
24-5
|
17
|
18
|
18
|
--
|
25
|
San
Diego
|
27-4
|
20
|
20
|
19
|
--
|
23
|
Michigan
|
20-12
|
22
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
41
|
Long Beach
St
|
23-6
|
23
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
21
|
W.
Kentucky
|
31-3
|
24
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
22
|
Miami
(FL)
|
25-4
|
25
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
14
|
No.
Illinois
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
19
|
Cincinnati
|
26-9
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
24
|
Tulsa
|
26-7
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
26
|
Kansas
St
|
20-10
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
27
|
Oklahoma
|
21-11
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
28
|
Colorado
St
|
23-5
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
31
|
N.
Carolina
|
23-8
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
32
|
W.
Michigan
|
24-8
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
33
|
Missouri
|
21-12
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
34
|
Ball
St
|
25-7
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
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