Apparently, College Basketball Games Don't Matter Either

My favorite college football national championship game debate has always been that of the 1993 season, when Notre Dame defeated Florida State in a regular season game, both teams finished with one loss, and Florida State was given the national title over Notre Dame. It was clear at that point that the regular season games really don't matter, despite what the NCAA would have you believe.

On Sunday night, we learned what the NCAA thinks of regular season college basketball games.

On December 13, 2009, Temple defeated Villanova, 75-65. Temple went on to earn the No. 1 seed in its conference tournament, then won its third consecutive Atlantic 10 championship, including a tough finals win over Richmond. Meanwhile, Villanova would go on to lose four of its final six regular season games, and didn't win a game in its conference tournament. The Big East is undeniably the best conference in the country, and herein lies the problem.

On Sunday, the NCAA revealed its 65-team field to determine this year's national champion. The seedings and matchups were announced, and when it was all said and done, the Owls had to be left scratching their heads. Temple was seeded fifth in its region, behind No. 1 Kentucky, No. 2 West Virginia, No. 3 New Mexico and No. 4 Wisconsin. SEC Champion Kentucky should be considered a favorite to win the national title and West Virginia won the Big East title. Wisconsin was 23-8 in an improved Big 10.

But New Mexico? Come on. New Mexico was good in the Mountain West, an inferior conference to the A-10 in my opinion, and the Lobos failed to win the conference title. But whatever. Let's move on to the next region.

No. 1 Duke. Won the ACC title. Good seeding, despite what some experts believe. No. 2 Villanova.

What?!?

Villanova doesn't deserve a 2 seed at all, but it really doesn't deserve a 2 seed ahead of Temple. And this is where the NCAA tournament committee clearly favored the strength of conference over all else, including the fact that the Wildcats didn't fare particularly well at the end of this tough schedule. This would be annoying if Temple had been downgraded to a 3 seed, but it's outright atrocious considering the Owls are No. 5.

As for the matchups, Temple has a tough Cornell team that won the Ivy League title and had a better record by one game. It's an infamous 5-12 matchup, meaning Temple really needs to be prepared to avoid the easiest upset among seeds in a tournament named March Madness. So a victim of seeding, they may be out after one round.

Villanova has a chance to advance to its second consecutive Final Four, but better beware Richmond in a possible second round game. It might be the most telling game of the tournament. If Villanova easily wins that game, fine. If it struggles or loses, the NCAA needs to rethink its committee and rethink its seedings.

Maybe even consider factoring in results of games played on the court.