There's some luck involved, matchups are important.
But part of it is that we rarely get an advantageous seed, because we can't consistently win games. Especially with a target on our backs and getting other teams' best shots every week.
Our chances at a deep run diminished with every one of these bad losses. Even though the vast majority of our fanbase isn't going to realize it until the bracket comes out, we see what our path is, and then we complain about bad matchups.
Well, that's what happens when you lose to WVU, KSU, and OSU. It's not that we have bad luck, it's that we have a very thin margin for error and/or we just aren't as good as we think we are.
Outside of the 2011-12 team, that had to play an elite Kentucky team in the 2nd round, I don’t think that’s been too impactful imo. Gotta avoid playing one of the few elite teams in 2nd round
Maybe 2013 could have won more regular season games in order to get a tangibly easier path until Sweet 16
It marginally impacted 2016 and 2017, but we were 4 and 5 seeds. I mean, come on. As the previous post shows, a lot of FF teams overcome far worse seeds
It didn’t impact 2000, 2002, 2014, 2015, or 2024 imo
2005, 2022, and 2023 weren’t inherently talented enough to be better than a bubble teams that would need to play above seed and upset better teams in order to make a deep run
2019 clearly had better talent than a 6th seed, but given we lost to a 11, I’m not sure how much it capped our run potential. The real issue wasn’t the seed, but the complete program meltdown that caused the seed.