Did FSU basketball get snubbed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee?

Well, that could have gone better. Florida State, as expected, wound up in the NCAA Tournament’s West region, with 1-seed Gonzaga. We knew that the Seminoles were right around the borderline between being a 3-seed or a 4-seed, but the selection committee gave the Texas Tech Red Raiders the former in the region, and the ’Noles the latter.

Okay, so whenever you’re straddling two possible seeds, getting the lower seed is going to kind of hurt. But the real disservice done to FSU by the committee was sending it to Hartford, CT to play 13-seed Vermont. We’ve pieces on the way discussing the Catamounts and their brand of basketball, but the issue here is logistical: the Seminoles are playing 1,209 miles away from home, and only 234 miles from UVM. Translation: congrats on a great season, Florida State— now go play a road game against a lower-seeded team.

Which squads did get 3-seeds, aside from TT? Purdue, LSU, and Houston. Of course, the ’Noles beat both the Boilermakers and the Tigers during the regular season— but those are isolated games within an entire body of work. As far as regular-season conference performance goes, LSU won the SEC, Houston won the AAC, and Purdue won a share of the Big Ten. There’s certainly some curiosity surrounding the Tigers, though, as their head coach, Will Wade, is currently suspended.

So, do the ’Noles have an argument for a 3-seed? Yes? Is it egregious that they find themselves as a 4-seed? No. But the combination of venue and opponent are rather ridiculous.