March Madness 2015: Who Got Screwed in the NCAA Bracket?

The 2015 NCAA tournament bracket has been revealed, leading to the annual debate about the handful of teams who got royally screwed.

Even if there were 100 committee members deliberating for 100 days over 100 teams, we would still find a way to argue that team No. 101 deserved to get in, that team No. 5 should have been a No. 1 seed and that certain matchups simply aren't fair.

It's both the beauty and the frustration of a bracket built by human beings. Those athletic directors and commissioners on the selection committee did the best they could.

America was going to complain regardless.

These are the teams and conferences we feel have the biggest gripe with the committee, due to low seedings, tough first opponents or not making the 68-team field at all.

Murray State Racers

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Despite what could only be described as an overabundance of bubble teams spending Championship Week looking like they wanted nothing to do with the NCAA tournament, there wasn't enough carnage for Murray State to sneak into the field.

From my bracketologist point of view, this was anything other than a team getting screwed. The Racers didn't play an RPI Top 25 team, they were annihilated in both games they played against the RPI Top 50 and they won just one game against the RPI Top 100. Though there were warts the size of Mount Everest on virtually every bubble team’s resume, that complete lack of quality wins, in conjunction with three losses to teams outside the RPI Top 100, was too much for Murray State to be a part of the conversation by the end.

From my human being point of view, Murray State missing the tournament sums up everything that is wrong with conference tournaments and the selection process.

Wichita State won 34 games in a row last season. Everyone questioned the strength of those wins against the 111th-toughest schedule in the country. The Shockers earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Murray State won 25 games in a row this season, but Cameron Payne and Jarvis Williams will be playing in the NIT because Taylor Barnette drained an off-balance three-pointer to instead give Belmont the Ohio Valley’s automatic bid.

Great for Belmont. Bad for college basketball. As soon as the game ended, we were inundated with articles offering suggestions on how to improve the NCAA tournament.

Based on the criteria laid forth for decades, Murray State didn't deserve to get in.

Based on the product the Racers put on the court, there’s no way they deserved to be left out.

Mountain West Conference

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Unlike Murray State, at least Boise State got into the field.

However, for winning the Mountain West regular-season championship, the Broncos not only have to play in the "First Four," but they have to do so in what essentially is a road game against Dayton.

You have to respect the selection committee's adherence to the true seed line, deciding several years ago that Dayton would not get preferential treatment if its resume was found to be worthy of a play-in game. But how fair is that to Boise State?

Elsewhere in the Mountain West, Colorado State opened the season 14-0, finished the season 26-6 and ranked in the top 30 in RPI, but was left out of the tournament in favor of major conference teams such as UCLA, Georgia and Ole Miss.

Even San Diego State (eighth seed in the South) was relatively screwed. The Aztecs have a resume arguably worthy of a No. 7 seed, but instead will need to get through St. John's before (almost certainly) facing a No. 1 seed in Duke.

We've realized over the past few years that the Mountain West can't be trusted in the NCAA tournament, but did the selection committee decide to penalize the conference for years of underperforming?

Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas won the Big 12 regular-season championship for an 11th consecutive year. It's always a difficult conference, but it was easily the best conference in the country this season.

The Jayhawks made it to the conference championship game and even held a 14-point halftime lead before falling to Iowa State. Their strength of schedule ranks No. 1 in the country. Their RPI ranks No. 3.

For all that work, they were given the most difficult path for a No. 2 seed.

First off, that Midwest Region opener against New Mexico State is no joke. The Aggies were more than worthy of a No. 14 seed, and with Remi Barry, Daniel Mullings, Pascal Siakam and Tshilidzi Nephawe all capable of scoring in double figures, they'll be a tough out.

From there, it's onto either a drastically under-seeded Wichita State team that has been begging to play Kansas for years or an Indiana team that is capable of draining 15 three-pointers on any given night.

According to Nicole Auerbach of USA Today, Kansas coach Bill Self's response to Wichita State's spot in the field was, "How in the world they’re a No. 7 seed blows my mind."

Survive that affair and it's likely onto games against Notre Dame and Kentucky the following weekend.

Good thing Kansas is already accustomed to a difficult schedule, right?

Illinois Fighting Illini

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How did Illinois not get an invite?

"Who you beat is more important than who beat you."

That’s what we were told at the mock NCAA tournament selection committee in mid-February—a two-day seminar held at NCAA headquarters designed to make the selection process less mysterious.

Apparently, that doesn't apply to the Illini.

Illinois had three RPI Top 25 wins during the regular season—vs. Maryland, neutral court against Baylor and at Michigan State. The Illini only lost to one team outside the RPI Top 100—a game played without star guard Rayvonte Rice on the road against Nebraska.

Yes, they had 13 losses, but so did a lot of teams under consideration—teams with worse losses than Illinois and "best wins" that weren't nearly as good.

For example, how did Ole Miss get in with only one RPI Top 25 win and four home losses to teams outside the RPI Top 100? Or, how did Georgia get in without beating a single team that made the tournament aside from Ole Miss?

A lot of teams were screwed in one way or another, but the Illini had the best resume among teams that didn’t make the field.

Georgetown Hoyas

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Aside from Joshua Smith's old team (UCLA) making the tournament, Smith's new team (Georgetown) getting a No. 4 seed was one of the most surprising things to come out of Selection Sunday. The Hoyas went just 1-5 against the RPI Top 25 and 8-10 against the RPI Top 100 this season.

However, we've known for a while now that the fourth and final No. 4 seed was likely going to be at a severe geographical disadvantage for its first two games. With a pod in Portland and a pod in Seattle and not enough quality West Coast teams to earn spots on the top four lines, some team was bound to be sent across multiple time zones to face lower-seeded teams that would actually prefer that Northwest location.

Lo and behold, the Hoyas from Washington, D.C. have to go all the way out to Portland to play an opener against Eastern Washington before likely drawing Utah in the round of 32.

It's not necessarily a death sentence. Two years ago, Syracuse was a No. 4 seed and flew out to San Jose to play in a pod with Montana, California and UNLV, and emerged victorious. But it sure does seem like a backhanded compliment to reward Georgetown with one of the more unenviable seeds.

And as B/R's C.J. Moore noted, Georgetown's recent history isn't exactly devoid of early upsets: "Georgetown hasn't made it past the first weekend since a 2007 Final Four run. Last time the Hoyas were in the NCAA tournament, they were victims of 'Dunk City' and Florida Gulf Coast."

Temple Owls

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Without beating SMU in the AAC semifinals, Temple was always going to be right on the fringe of getting into the tournament. The Owls had one outstanding win over Kansas, but not much else.

However, what happened to the eye test?

What happened to valuing strong nonconference strengths of schedule? The Owls ranked 47th in the nation in that category thanks to games played against Kansas, Duke and Villanova.

What happened to evaluating teams based on their current roster construction? Temple was a much better team with Jesse Morgan and Devin Coleman on the court for the final three months of the season.

What happened, according to committee chair Scott Barnes' interview on CBS after the Selection Show, was that Wyoming won the Mountain West automatic bid. Had San Diego State won that game, Wyoming would not have made the tournament and Temple would have received a bid.

Frankly, the AAC in general got pretty screwed. For winning a regular-season and conference-tournament title, SMU was only rewarded with a No. 6 seed, and Cincinnati was the only at-large bid from a conference that had Temple, Tulsa and Connecticut under consideration.

Arizona Wildcats

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We can somewhat accept that Wisconsin was more deserving of a No. 1 seed than Arizona.

Wisconsin's best wins weren't nearly as good as Arizona's best wins. Wisconsin's worst loss was far worse than Arizona's worst loss. But, it's fine. The Badgers had a great case, Frank Kaminsky is amazing and the alternative was dooming Wisconsin to the No. 2 seed opposite Kentucky.

But what was up with Arizona not even finishing ahead of Virginia on the overall seed line?

It didn't ultimately matter; as long as Arizona finished ahead of Gonzaga, it was getting the West Region's No. 2 seed. But how did the selection committee come to the conclusion that Virginia deserved to drop off the top line for not looking good as it lost two of its last three games—but not far enough to drop behind Arizona?

Was the divide between the Badgers and Wildcats really that wide? If so, does the committee not realize that Arizona went 18-0 against the RPI Top 100 this season?

Furthermore, what a brutal road Arizona has to go through. Texas Southern is not your average No. 15 seed. The Tigers had road wins over Michigan State and Kansas State earlier this season. After that game, would Sean Miller prefer VCU's "HAVOC" or Ohio State star freshman D'Angelo Russell?

Win those two games and the Wildcats are probably headed for either a physical game against Baylor or a game against a red-hot "First Four" team playing with house money. All that just to earn a shot at Wisconsin.

Purdue Boilermakers

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Purdue was very much a bubble team throughout most of Championship Week. Had the Boilermakers lost to Penn State in the Big Ten quarterfinals, they would have been boiling in some hot water for a few days, sweating out their bid.

Even after Purdue beat the Nittany Lions, some were skeptical of its worthiness for the dance. Yes, the Boilermakers won 12 Big Ten games, but they didn't beat Maryland or Wisconsin and they lost home games against North Florida and Gardner-Webb.

The general consensus seemed to be that Purdue was headed for either a low No. 10 seed or a high No. 11 seed, but it wouldn't have been a huge surprise if the Boilermakers missed the dance.

Yet, there they were just moments into the Selection Show, revealed as a No. 9 seed.

So how did Purdue get screwed?

Roughly five seconds after celebrating getting into the field, Purdue inevitably realized that it would play its second game against Kentucky—if it was even able to beat Cincinnati in the first game.

You have to think that, given the choice of going to the play-in game against Dayton in the East or drawing Kentucky that early in the Midwest, Matt Painter and Co. would rather take their chances with the extra game.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter at @kerrancejames.