I already posted this a week ago but I think it's important for as many people as possible to see it. Geography Bracketing is patently unfair and bull **** because history tells us that west will ALWAYS be weaker than the other regions and therefore throw off competitive balance with the south and midwest always being tougher.
My argument is that history has demonstrated to us that the Western United States since John Wooden's retirement has not been equal in producing college basketball success when compared to the other regions of the country. Let us first start with a calculation of geographic success with NCAA men's basketball champions since 1976. I choose 1976 because it was the first year after John Wooden's retirement and to me is the point at which the modern college basketball era starts. That is not to diminish Wooden's accomplishments but rather to acknowledge his total domination of the sport and how things went back to a more level playing field once he was no longer a player on the national scene.
* For the purposes of this regional breakdown I grouped the school's from North Carolina and Virginia in the South because they are both Southern States and share more in common culturally with the south than with the rest of the Eastern Coastal School's. I also grouped in the flyover states and Texas with the Midwest region. In a perfect world they would have their own region but the NCAA only has 4 regions in the tournament each year and these school's again share more common culture with the traditional midwest than the Pacific Coast or South.
1976-2014: NCAA Champions
East: 8 by 5 teams
Georgetown-1
Villanova-1
Connecticut-4
Maryland-1
Syracuse-1
Midwest: 9 by 5 teams
Indiana-3
Marquette-1
Michigan State-2
Kansas-2
Michigan-1
South: 19 by 7 teams
Kentucky-4
Louisville-3
North Carolina-4
North Carolina State-1
Duke-4
Arkansas-1
Florida-2
West: 3 by 3 teams
UNLV-1
UCLA-1
Arizona-1
However after compiling this data it occurred to me that it would be more fair to list all of the final four participates not simply the champions because if a school is capable of reaching the Final Four then they are capable of winning a championship. So here is a geographic breakdown of the NCAA Final Four participants from 1976 on:
Final Four Participants:
East:
Rutgers
Pennsylvania
Georgetown:4
Villanova:2
St. John's
Syracuse:4
Providence
Seton Hall
Massachusetts
Connecticut:5
Maryland:2
George Mason
West Virginia
Total: 25 by 13 schools
Midwest:
Indiana: 5
Michigan:5
Marquette:2
Notre Dame
Michigan State:7
Indiana State
DePaul
Purdue
Iowa
Kansas:8
Oklahoma:2
Illinois:2
Cincinnati
Oklahoma State:2
Minnesota
Ohio State:3
Wisconsin:2
Texas
Butler:2
Wichita State
Houston:3
Total: 52 by 21 schools.
South:
North Carolina:12
Charlotte
Kentucky:9
Duke:12
Arkansas:4
Louisville:7
Virginia:2
LSU:3
North Carolina State
Georgia
Memphis State:2
Georgia Tech:2
Florida:5
Mississippi State
VCU
Total: 63 by 15 schools
West:
UCLA:6
UNLV:4
Arizona:4
Utah
Stanford
Total: 16 by 5 schools.
Now if the NCAA is going to cater so much in seeding the top lines of the tournament so the top schools can compete close to their natural locations geographically that idea only works logically if the regions equally create Final Four participants. I believe the data clearly demonstrates that the West does not routinely generate enough Final Four participants to justify relying on this geographic proximity system. In essence Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, and Indiana are being punished for something as arbitrary as being founded in neighboring states. The system as constituted now is greatly helping teams like UCLA, Arizona, and UNLV because they are going to be paired together is a less competitive bracket historically speaking. I'm not sure why cities such as Portland, Seattle, San Fransisco, San Jose, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City have been unable without the help of Bill Russell to generate any success at collegiate basketball and they are some of the greatest cities this country has to offer so I understand them being viable locations for Regional NCAA Tournament sites. But if we are going to insist upon having a western United States regional site each year then we need to return to the S-Curve because there are not enough successful teams out West to justify geographic centered seeding in the NCAA tournament each year and not expect for the West bracket to be the easiest with the Midwest and Southern brackets littered with traditional powers.
I simply having reviewed the history of college basketball for almost the last 40 years believe that a geographic centered approach to seeding in the tournament is patently unfair for everyone not located in the west coast.