Deja BYU: The Sequel—Cougars Face Texas A&M for Second Straight Year

With a lot of discussion about the bubble, and not enough discussion about the weird travel decisions (example: Utah playing in Miami, Florida State playing in Boise), this tournament committee appeared to struggle in formulating a good bracket. My major question about the committee's ability came with the announcement of BYU versus Texas A&M.

Did I accidentally turn on the 2008 selection show? How can the committee not know that this game happened last year? This game has the makings of a trip in the DeLorean back to 2008.

BYU is the No. 8 seed facing No. 9 seed Texas A&M, just like they both were last year.

The game is taking place in the West region, just like last year.

The game is taking place on a Thursday, just like last year.

In Anaheim last year, this game was the first game of session one. In Philadelphia, it's the first game in session one.

Neither team made the Sweet 16 last year, but had they, the games would have taken place in Phoenix, probably with the team staying in Scottsdale. This year, the West Regional is in Glendale, and if either team makes the Sweet 16, they will probably stay in Scottsdale.

The announcers of the game last year were Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas. This year the announcers of the game will be Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas. To give you an idea of how insane this is, the game Thursday will be the third NCAA Tournament game Carter Blackburn has announced. Two of them will have been BYU-Texas A&M.

I only have one rationale on how this happened: The committee has a template where they feed the teams into the bracket software. They used the 2008 edition, and someone forgot to delete this game.

Last year was a pretty tight game with A&M winning in the last minute, but I really can't imagine the demand for a sequel to the game last year was so great. Siena could have easily played BYU. Anyone else.

I really think it would be funny if CBS just ran the game from last year and changed the graphics to see if anyone noticed outside of A&M and BYU fans. I may just drop $20 on A&M in case the game actually is a replay.

I will be in attendance on Thursday, and if I am somehow whisked away to the Honda Center before tip-off, I will know that time travel is possible and the committee has a lot more up their sleeves than bubble teams and seedings.