Posted by Steve Infanti -  Just like many of you, I spent Selection Sunday in front of the television anxiously anticipating the field of 65. Since I knew Syracuse wasn’t going to be a part of it, I was able to form a more objective opinion about the bracket as a whole this year -- more so than most years when I’m scrambling to book a hotel and airfare to go cover the Orange.

When all the dust settled, my initial reaction was that the committee did a pretty good job of getting the field of 65 right. There was no one team that I felt was unfairly snubbed (which certainly wasn’t the case last year). Overall, I think the committee did a good job identifying the best 34 at-large teams.

Of course, I still have a few questions when I look at the bracket. Like, how can a bubble team such as South Alabama not only get in as a 10-seed, but then earn a virtual home game in Birmingham? Or look at Davidson, another 10-seed playing in Raleigh just around the corner from its home court. If I had a couple minutes with selection committee chair Tom O‘Connor, those would be a couple of the questions I would raise. What I wouldn’t do is what Billy Packer did on the CBS broadcast and spend my time with Mr. O’Connor harping on why the ACC only got four teams in and the Big East got eight.

Was I the only one who thought Packer sounded like an ACC cheerleader? Maybe his first question to O’Connor was fine, but then he asked a follow-up question as well. You need to keep in mind that Packer is the main college basketball analyst for ACC television broadcasts all season long.

His point was that the ACC was the #1 rated conference in the country while the Big East was rated fifth by the RPI. Ok, so both conferences are good and both conferences got the teams in that should’ve gotten in. Packer seemed appalled that eight bids went to the Big East. I wanted to yell through my television set that the Big East has   16 teams in it. I wish O’Connor had reminded him of that fact. Half of the Big East got in (rightfully so) while a third of the ACC got in (four of its 12 teams -- and rightfully so). The ACC’s rating is helped by the fact that it essentially had two top five teams in the country all year long (Duke and North Carolina). From top to bottom though, at least this year, the Big East is a better conference.

The only possible argument Packer could’ve been making was that Virginia Tech deserved to get in over Villanova. But when you look at the numbers, they didn’t deserve to get in. The Hokies only had one win against the entire NCAA tournament field. On the flip side, they had four losses against teams rated outside of the RPI Top 100. As for Villanova? The Wildcats had a higher RPI than the Hokies, they had more wins overall, more wins over the Top 50, more wins on the road, and more wins in their last 10 games. It seems like a pretty sound decision to me.

So, what are your thoughts? Were you happy with the committee’s decisions? Is there anything you would change?

Ok, it’s time for me to go start filling out my bracket. Let the madness begin...