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Tennessee Fans Are Furious After Being Seeded Behind Duke In The NCAA Tournament

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Selection Sunday always comes with a little bit of controversy.

Often times, deserving teams are left out of the bracket while others might get in with lesser resumes. The committee seems to change its criteria for a bid with each passing season. There’s no clear benchmark for an automatic bid, so these decisions can feel biased for those on the losing end.

One of those teams in 2022 is the Tennessee Volunteers.

While the Vols made it safely into the tournament field, fans feel that they should’ve been seeded a line higher. As it stands, UT is on the No. 3 line, but after winning the SEC Tournament over the weekend, many folks believe a No. 2 seed was in order.

And they’ve been comparing resumes to one blue blood, in particular, as an argument.

The Duke Blue Devils got one of the four No. 2 seeds though they fail to match Tennessee’s resume on nearly every metric.

And the college basketball world has been quick to point out the snub.

Fans, Media React To Tennessee Seeding

The Volunteers finished 26-7 on the year, winning 14 SEC games. That was good for the second-best conference mark in, arguably, the nation’s toughest league.

The Vols went 16-0 at home, while knocking off tournament teams Auburn, Arizona, Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina, and LSU. They also lost by a combined six points to Texas and Texas Tech away from home, accounting two of their seven Q1 losses.

In all, Tennessee landed 11 quad one wins, making them just one of four NCAA teams to record double digit victories in that category. The Volunteers were 16-7 combined in Q1 and Q2 matchups while having no losses outside of that first quadrant.

Compare that to Duke, who won six Q1 games, finished 12-5 in Q1 and Q2 contests, and has one Q3 loss. This while playing in a “down” ACC that only boasts five tournament teams. One of those is play-in team Notre Dame, while the other three are eight seeds or higher.

The CBS Sports crew goes further into this argument. It’s actually baffling if you stop and think about it.

Duke has more losses outside of the Q1 than the other three No. 2 seeds (and Tennessee), combined.

The Vols have a more difficult strength of schedule, better NET ranking, and higher quality wins. Yet, the committee opted to give the nod to Duke in Coach K’s final season on the sidelines.

Tennessee fans, expectedly, weren’t happy. Check out some of the social media reaction below.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1503358816557182979