The committee will create an s-curve (i.e., rank of the teams 1 through 64) which is used as a reference to assess competitive balance across the four regions. Once the s-curve is finalized, it remains unchanged while placing the teams into the championship bracket.
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The committee will attempt to assign each team to the most geographically compatible regional and first-/second-round site, by order of the s-curve. When multiple teams are a similar distance from a site, the team seeded higher in the s-curve will be assigned to the closest geographical proximity site.
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A team may be moved one bracket line from its true seed line (e.g., from a No. 13 seed to a No. 12 seed) when it is placed in the bracket, if necessary to meet the principles.
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Procedures for Placing Teams into the Championship Bracket
• Place the teams seeded 1-4 in each of the four regions pairing the No. 1 seed’s region against the No. 4 seed’s region and the No. 2 seed’s region against the No. 3 seed’s region. Place the Nos. 2, 3, 4 seeds in each region.
• After teams have been placed in Line Nos. 1-4, the committee may place teams in the following lines in any order: Line Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8; Line Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12, and Line Nos. 13, 14, 15 and 16.
• After each group of four teams is determined, check for conflicts with the principles for placing the teams into the bracket and determine the relative strengths of the regions by adding the “true” seed number in each region (e.g., original s-curve order). Generally, no more than five points should separate the lowest and highest total in Line Nos. 1-4.
• In bracket line Nos. 5 through 12, the committee will assign all four teams a bracket line number (i.e., five through twelve) rather than using the seed number. All teams on a given line will have the same numerical value.
• After all teams have been placed in the bracket and the bracket assignments have been checked to ensure that the principles have been met, the committee will formally adopt the bracket.