Yes, there is way too much emphasis on being National Seed (stats inside!)

How many National Seeds made it to Omaha in the last 5 years?  40%

2016: 3 of 8*
2015: 4 of 8*
2014: 2 of 8*
2013: 3 of 8*
2012: 4 of 8*

*national champ was not a national seed

That's right. The last 5 national champs were not National Seeds.

It is better to be hot than host.

UPDATED FOR THE CLUELESS:

From ncaa.com - how do national seeds perform?

I know it'll be hard for you 3 slack-jacked, sloped-forheaded ninnies (ell_13, Broski, Hold That Tiger 10) to get through all the big words in the article, but there are nice pictures for you!:

quote:

---

Spots held by top eight seeds in modern NCAA tournament history
CWS/ELITE8 -- CHAMPIONSHIP GAME -- CHAMPION
Baseball -- 56.3% -- 58.3% -- 38.9%
Basketball -- 58.0% -- 68.2% -- 75.8%

For as crazy as March is known to be, the top eight teams in basketball tend to perform much better than their baseball counterparts.

---

This despite the fact that there are no host sites in NCAA basketball.

This would indicate to someone like me (degree in stats) as well as the average layperson that, while hosting can be seen as advantageous, hosting as a precious national seed (ell_13_akaChester bows his knee in quiet reverence) is *not* a factor in ultimate success when compared to the control group.

[Drop mic]