Florida Leads No. 1 Seeds in an NCAA Bracket Light on Midmajors

The Florida Gators, who barely held off Kentucky to win the Southeastern Conference tournament championship on Sunday and extend their winning streak to 26 games, landed the No. 1 overall seed when the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament pairings were announced less than an hour after the SEC final.

Arizona (30-4), Wichita State (34-0) and the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, Virginia (28-6), joined the Gators (32-2) as top seeds in a draw heavy on legacy conference teams and light on those from the midmajors. The Big 12 placed seven teams in the tournament, with the A.C.C., the Pacific-12, the Big Ten and the Atlantic 10 each qualifying six.

The challenge of wedging unexpected conference champions with automatic bids into the field - like Providence from the Big East - kept out bubble teams like Southern Methodist, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Florida State and Georgetown. In the 31 conference tournaments this season, only 11 No. 1 seeds claimed league titles.

'Green Bay was the one team that I thought had the profile of being worthy,' the CBS basketball analyst Clark Kellogg said, noting that Wisconsin-Green Bay (24-6) lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Horizon League semifinals after winning the regular-season title.

The Men's Bracket

'Factoring the number of No. 1 seeds that didn't win, that may have created some issues for a team like Green Bay because it squeezed the bubble a touch,' Kellogg said.

Green Bay ranks 56th in the Rating Percentage Index but 155th in strength of schedule, with three of its victories over Division II teams.

Tennessee, Iowa, Xavier and North Carolina State were the last four teams into the 68-team field, according to Ron Wellman, the chairman of the N.C.A.A. Division I men's basketball selection committee. North Carolina State's three victories on the road against top-50 teams - at Pittsburgh and Tennessee, and over Syracuse in the A.C.C. tournament - swayed the committee to include the Wolfpack, Wellman said.

'Road wins against top-50 teams are really, really impressive to the committee,' Wellman said during a conference call Sunday night. 'That probably was the one factor that was the most prominent.'

Although S.M.U. went 23-9 to post its best record in two decades under its well-traveled coach, Larry Brown, Wellman called its schedule a glaring weakness. S.M.U. ranked 303rd out of 349 teams in nonconference strength of schedule, and 129th over all. That was more an issue than S.M.U.'s three-game losing streak to finish the season, which included a quarterfinal loss to Houston in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

'S.M.U. was the first team out,' Wellman said.

Brown told The Dallas Morning News that he thought S.M.U. might be the last team announced. That turned out to be Providence, the 11th seed in the East Region.

'When I saw some of the teams that got in, Xavier, N.C. State, some of the late teams, and then I didn't see any American Athletic Conference teams in the first two regions, then all of a sudden I see Louisville at 4, I knew we were going to be in trouble,' Brown told the newspaper.

The omission of S.M.U., and the defending national champion Louisville's drawing only a No. 4 seed despite winning the A.A.C. regular-season and tournament championships, were among the committee's most talked-about decisions.

Besides Louisville, the A.A.C. placed Cincinnati (27-6), Connecticut (26-8) and Memphis (23-9) in the tournament.

One top conference seed that did prevail was the Missouri Valley champion, Wichita State, the first team to enter the N.C.A.A. tournament undefeated since Nevada-Las Vegas in 1991. Although the Shockers were criticized in some circles for their schedule, ranked 97th, Wellman said they were never in danger of falling below a No. 1 seed.

But the committee did the Shockers no favors, slotting them in a stacked Midwest Region with their fellow 2013 Final Four participants Michigan (25-8) and Louisville (29-5), along with Duke (26-8). 'On paper, I don't think there's any way you could not list the Midwest as the most loaded, with the way Louisville's playing,' Kellogg said.

Florida, in the South Region, must contend with Kansas (24-9) and Syracuse (27-5). Arizona, in the West Region, may have the least difficult road to the Final Four in Arlington, Tex., Kellogg said.

Wellman said Virginia, which drew the top spot in the East, edged Michigan and Villanova (28-4) as the last No. 1. Michigan's 69-55 loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament championship game Sunday cost the Wolverines a No. 1 seed, Wellman said. Wisconsin (26-7), a No. 2 seed in the West, was not considered for a top seed.

Kansas, the No. 2 seed in the South, received the highest seed of the Big 12 teams, a list that included Kansas State (20-12), Texas (23-10), Oklahoma State (21-12), Oklahoma (23-9), Baylor (24-11) and Iowa State (26-7).

The Jayhawks played the country's toughest schedule but lost to Iowa State in the Big 12 Conference semifinals without the injured center Joel Embiid (stress fracture in back).

At the Big 12 Tournament, Kansas Coach Bill Self reiterated that Embiid remained doubtful for the first weekend of N.C.A.A. tournament play.

'Injuries can be a factor,' Wellman said. 'We believe that Kansas, even without Embiid, is very deserving of a No. 2 seed.'

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