There is one team in the NCAA tournament this year from the entire area that would be most of the Deep South (NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, KY, TN, AR, LA)--Greensboro, which received their conference's automatic bid.
In contrast, there are 8 schools in the tourney from the one state of Massachusetts! Now I know that most of the schools received their conference's automatic bid, so some of that is an artifact of the number of schools and number of conferences in that area. But there were a few at large bids out of that 8--MIT, for example, did not win their conference but received an at large bid.
Oglethorpe U in Atlanta won their conference tournament, but because of the provisional status of the SAA, they did not get an automatic bid. They went 11-3-3 and even beat UAA's Emory.
Yet they did not receive an Pool B or Pool C bid.
I think the selection committe should pay a bit more attention to regions in awarding at large bids.
In contrast, there are 8 schools in the tourney from the one state of Massachusetts! Now I know that most of the schools received their conference's automatic bid, so some of that is an artifact of the number of schools and number of conferences in that area. But there were a few at large bids out of that 8--MIT, for example, did not win their conference but received an at large bid.
Oglethorpe U in Atlanta won their conference tournament, but because of the provisional status of the SAA, they did not get an automatic bid. They went 11-3-3 and even beat UAA's Emory.
Yet they did not receive an Pool B or Pool C bid.
I think the selection committe should pay a bit more attention to regions in awarding at large bids.