All matches Friday/Saturday, times EST based on NCAA posted times (unless noted wrt the two outlier regions). Top 4 seeds own right to host the regionals if they advance. If one of them loses this weekend, next highest seed in bracket will host, that rarely happens in VB. FF is in Kansas City this year. No cable coverage opening weekend, though streaming options should abound.
A few random thoughts: Maryland and North Texas were the two biggest snubs. High Point, Charleston, LSU and NC State had to be last in. PSU and UF were locks for top seeds, Stanford was next closest. UK was #1RPI, but similar to the CFPs ongoing rankings, they pulled a pretty big switch at the end. Nebraska went from #2 in their latest reveal, to #5, and the only thing that changed was Nebraska's RPI probably dipped due to ending with B1G lower tier teams. UK actually lost a match in that time (swept by UF). I assume Texas was punished for a softer schedule. As Fearless noted, shouldn't lose to Northern Iowa, even if it was September. Hilarious that Stanford may draw Michigan in 2nd round. Michigan has been Stanford's nemesis, beating them twice in the tournament in recent memory. I can't believe both Mich St and Purdue fell out of top 16. Perhaps the rosy B1G goggles.
If I had to pick an 'unseeded' teams to win each region: Michigan St, Oregon, Michigan, Cal Poly.
LEFT SIDE OF BRACKET
(State College, PA)
#1 Penn St vs Howard 7:30pm
VCU vs Pittsburgh 5pm
(Wichita, KS)
Kansas vs Missouri 7pm
#16 Wichita State vs Radford 9pm
(Omaha, NE)
#9 Creighton vs Coastal Carolina 8pm
Missouri St. vs Michigan State 5pm
(Seattle, WA)
Illinois vs Hawaii 8pm
#8 Washington vs LIU-Brooklyn 10:30pm
(Lincoln, NE)
#5 Nebraska vs Stony Brook 8pm
Florida St vs Washington St 5:30pm
(Waco, TX)
Colorado vs James Madison 5:30pm
#12 Baylor vs Miami (OH) 8pm
(Provo, UT)
#13 BYU vs American 9pm
Kennesaw St vs Oregon 6pm
(Lexington, KY)
Western Kentucky vs Notre Dame 5pm
#4 Kentucky vs East Tenn St 7:30pm
RIGHT SIDE OF BRACKET
(Palo Alto, CA)
#3 Stanford vs CSU Bakersfield 10pm
Colorado St vs Michigan 7:30pm
(Ames, IA)
Wisconsin vs Marquette 5pm
#14 Iowa St vs Princeton 8pm
(Salt Lake City, UT Thursday/Friday)
#11 Utah vs Cleveland State 9pm
High Point vs Purdue 7pm
(Austin, TX)
Oregon St vs NC State 5:30pm
#6 Texas vs Fairfield 8pm
(Minneapolis, MN)
#7 Minnesota vs North Dakota 8pm
Northern Iowa vs Louisville 5:30pm
(Los Angeles, CA)
San Diego vs LSU 8pm
#10 USC vs Central Arkansas 10pm
(Los Angeles, CA)
#15 UCLA vs Austin Peay 11pm
Denver vs Cal Poly 8:30pm
(Gainesville, FL Thursday/Friday)
Miami vs Coll. Of Charleston 5:30 pm
#2 Florida vs Alabama State 7pm
