For the first time in college basketball history, the NCAA selection committee will unveil the seeding of some of the top NCAA Tournament teams during the regular season in a show aired on CBS, it was announced on Tuesday.
The show, which will be hosted by Greg Gumbel and analysts Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis, will also include NCAA men's basketball chair and director of athletics at Michigan State University, Mark Hollis.
The television program will begin with the unveiling of the current top-16 teams as of Feb. 11. Later in the show, CBS Sports Bracketologist Jerry Palm will join to project his current field of 68 teams, analyze the entire field, and discuss teams sitting on the bubble of an NCAA tournament berth.
"We are excited about giving the fans a glimpse to what the men's basketball committee is thinking at this point of the season, and creating a buzz as we look towards Selection Sunday," said Mark Hollis, chair of this year's selection committee. "It's important to recognize after this list has been released, there is still a significant portion of the regular season to be played and every league must stage its conference tournament. There's potential for quite a bit of movement until we do it for real March 12, but this early peek will give everyone insight as to where the committee stands as we hit the stretch run of the regular season."
The College Football Playoff, which has a committee that reveals its top teams each week to close out the regular season, has had great success in doing something similar. By revealing early brackets and projections, interest around the sport has increased. And with the current top-16 teams being revealed a month early, it will spark a discussion and debate that should only further the intrigue around college basketball and Selection Sunday.
The unveiling, as Hollis said, doesn't solidify any team's spot in the final bracket. However it does give teams and fans an inside look at the thought process of the selection committee and where each team stands, while furthering the debate in creating a buzz a month before the official brackets are released on March 12.
