Biggest winners and losers of the men’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal

It’s finally time for March Madness.

The 2022 men’s NCAA Tournament field was officially revealed on Sunday.

Who got snubbed by the selection committee? Who got lucky? Here are the biggest winners and losers of the bracket reveal.

Loser: Anyone in the East

The East is easily the toughest region in the tournament field.

To start with, the No. 1 seed is Baylor and the No. 2 seed is Kentucky. The Bears won the national title last year, are extremely well coached and have the DNA to go far again. The latter two can also be said for the Wildcats, who are ranked No. 3 in the country by KenPom and boast national player of the year candidate Oscar Tschibwe.

The No. 3 seed is Purdue, which has one of the best offenses in the country. The Boilermakers can hurt you with a wide variety of skilled players, from Jaden Ivey to Zach Edey to Trevion Williams. But the concern will be the defense, which ranks 100th in adjusted efficiency, according to KenPom.

Then you’ve got No. 4 seed UCLA, which went to the Final Four last year, and No. 5 seed St, Mary’s, which managed to upset top overall seed Gonzaga earlier this season.

Throw in No. 7 seed Murray State of the Ohio Valley, which went 30-2 in the regular season and was seeded too low. Another mid-major sleeper, Wyoming, will compete against Indiana in a play-in game for the No. 12 seed. Plus, Texas is in there too as a No. 6 seed out of the Big 12.

I truly can’t tell you who will come out of that section of the bracket. But I do know it’s going to be an absolute dog fight. Good luck.

Winner: Kansas

The Jayhawks have quite the ideal path to the Final Four.

My colleague Jesse Newell wrote about the best and worst matchups for Kansas prior to the bracket reveal. The two teams he said coach Bill Self’s team should want to see as the other top seeds in its region were No. 2 seed Auburn and No. 3 seed Wisconsin. And that’s exactly who KU got.

The No. 4 seed in the Midwest is Providence and the No. 5 seed is Iowa. Neither are great defensive teams, and the Jayhawks’ offense can likely outpower them both. The one threat there is that both are great at pulling at close games.

The No. 6 seed in the region, LSU, is in disarray. The Tigers just fired Will Wade and associate coach Will Armstrong following the Notice of Allegations it received from the NCAA earlier this month. They will be led by interim head coach Kevin Nickelberry through the tournament.

Location is on Kansas’ side too. The Jayhawks will play its first two rounds of the tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, where they have a sizable alumni base. The regional in Chicago will be easy enough for fans to get to as well.

Loser: The SEC

It’s almost as if the committee just didn’t pay attention to the SEC Tournament in Tampa. Six teams made the field, tied for second with the Big 12 and Big East and behind the Big Ten (nine), but several clearly got snubbed.

Let’s start with Tennessee, which is a No. 3 seed, despite winning the conference tournament and having quite the impressive resume. The 26-7 Vols had 10 Quadrant 1 wins, including victories over No. 1 seed Arizona, No. 2 seed Kentucky, No. 2 seed Auburn and No. 4 seed Arkansas. They also won 12 of their last 13 games, with their only loss in another matchup with the Razorbacks on the road.

The Wildcats also didn’t get so lucky by being placed in the aforementioned nightmare that is the East Region. I had them as a Final Four pick on nearly every week of our Beyond the Bracket podcast, but getting out of that region will surely be tricky.

But perhaps most disgruntled should be Texas A&M, which was left out of the tournament field. The 23-12 Aggies won seven of their last eight games, including three in three days — with upsets over Auburn and Arkansas — to advance to the championship game of the SEC Tournament. The team was ranked No. 42 in the NET rankings and No. 43 on KenPom as well.

Winner: Michigan

The Wolverines got into the tournament over a lot of teams that were unjustly left out of the field, such as Texas A&M and Oklahoma (18-15), which had much better wins on its resume, including an upset over Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament.

Coach Juwan’s Howard team is a No. 11 seed, without the sweat of a play-in game, in the South Region and will face No. 6 seed Colorado State in the first round. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Michigan finished the year just three games over .500 with a 17-14 record. The team teetered between wins and losses to end the regular season and then lost to Indiana — which will have to compete in a play-in game — in its first game of the Big Ten Tournament. And Howard’s squad only went 8-13 across the first two quadrants.

Most bracketologists had the team projected as one of the last four in or left out of the field. But luck went the way of the Wolverines.