That's right. Butler's exclusion last season woke up the committee to being more subjective -- this March. The committee is looking at giving senior-laden teams a break if they lose a game in their last 10 or in the conference tournament that they shouldn't or aren't expected to lose. Butler lost two of its last three and lost in the conference tournament to an eighth seed last season.

"If a team has played well all along and is a senior-dominated team, but then all of a sudden stubs its toe in a conference tournament, that needs to be looked at,'' said Arizona athletics director Jim Livengood, who is the selection committee's chair this year. "We've got to make sure we know as much about these teams as we can. We can't let one loss foul up the selection process.''

This rule could really help Butler, Creighton, Kent State or Manhattan if these veteran, not necessarily senior-laden, teams lose a game to a team that is below them in their conference.

	Hollis Price and OU aren't the hosts, so they could play closer to home in Oklahoma City.

Boston College, Utah, Butler and Vanderbilt better get Oklahoma's number and give the Sooners a call to find out how easy it was to get rid of the hosting duties. Oklahoma got out of being the host school for the first- and second-round games in Oklahoma City. The Sooners transferred the hosting duties to the Big 12 in August. What did that do? It allowed the Sooners to play in Oklahoma City if they fall in the appropriate seeding line.

The rule is simple: A team that is hosting can't play in that same site.

Boston College could have shifted the hosting responsibilities to the Big East so the Eagles could play in Boston's Fleet Center. But they didn't. Utah could have done the same to the Mountain West, as long as the Utes moved the games from their Huntsman Center to say the Delta Center. Butler could have allowed the Horizon League to take over sole hosting duties at the RCA Dome, instead of sharing it with the Bulldogs in Indianapolis. Butler can't play in Indianapolis because the school is co-hosting. Vanderbilt is making a late charge to get into the Dance, but if it does the Commodores can't play in Nashville because they are hosting at Gaylord Entertainment Center.

"They could have switched,'' Livengood said when asked if the Eagles could have gotten out of hosting like Oklahoma. "That's one of the issues we have to look at with conferences and institutions hosting. If you do, then you lose your ability to play in your backyard.''

The rule is archaic. The women's bracket doesn't have the rule but the men's bracket does. Hancock said the rule was put in place because there was fear an administrator could be biased if he or she were, say, a clock or time operator.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time there was no advantage,'' Hancock said. "But we didn't want an end of game situation to come down to a (person who worked for the school).''

The schools in the top four seeded spots have a chance to get the advantage. There is no guarantee that the above-mentioned hosts would have been seeded high enough to take advantage of the home site even if the rule was lifted.

Following this mid-major trend of looking out for the little guy, at least one committee member got out and saw games this season. That's right. New member Craig Littlepage, the athletic director at Virginia, had a meeting in the Midwest last month. Instead of trying to waste time going to a mall, he called up MAC commissioner Rick Cryst and took in a few games in the area.

Livengood said the committee implored its members to go and see teams they normally wouldn't see to have a better appreciation of them before they come to Indianapolis in March. But, believe this, it had never been done. Never, according to long time NCAA selection committee liaison Tom Jernstedt.

"A problem can arise when one committee member is going out and the other one isn't,'' Livengood said. "You can make a mistake in bracketing and seeding but we can't in selection. That's the critical part. If you've got 10 people in a room who have knowledge on the teams that you've got a chance to do it right, instead of using a computer.''

Livengood is a fan of the human element, the subjective opinion instead of trying to lean too heavily on the power ratings and the numbers.

	Rashad McCants and UNC better get above .500 in the ACC -- or forget about the NCAAs.

Every season, the committee chair will give a different take on whether it's OK to have a below average record in one of the top six conferences. But this is a different season. Livengood said there is too much parity.

"It's really hard to justify that,'' Livengood said.

There is still half the season to go in conference play but this should send a message to Virginia (3-4 in the ACC), North Carolina (2-5 in the ACC), Texas Tech (2-4 in the Big 12), Alabama (3-4 in the SEC), Mississippi State (3-4 in the SEC) and Ole Miss (3-4 in the SEC).

The committee was adamant that it doesn't add up the number of conference teams while building the bracket. There are conference rules, such as the first three teams from a conference have to be in different regions and no more than one team from a conference may be seeded in the same grouping of four (seeds 1 to 4 and 13-16 in a region). Teams from the same conference in lines 5 through 12 can be in the same group of four providing they wouldn't meet until the Elite Eight. Conference teams can't meet each other prior to the regional final unless a ninth team is selected from a conference.

And that's why Livengood wouldn't dispute the possibility of seven from the SEC or any other conference. And there is a chance this season with Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt out of the SEC East and Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State and Ole Miss out of the SEC West for a possible six or seven bids out of the SEC.

No one on the committee was thrilled with Pittsburgh playing in Pittsburgh (on a different court) or Texas playing Mississippi State in Dallas even though the Longhorns were the No. 6 seed and the Bulldogs No. 3. But expect more of the same. Oklahoma is likely to have home-court advantage in Oklahoma City. Don't be surprised to see Kentucky, Louisville or Purdue in Indianapolis. Florida could be in Tampa.

Hancock said the top four teams in each region have earned the right to have an advantage. The main focus is to ensure that those teams aren't at a disadvantage when they play in the first weekend. That's why the committee was more upset about Mississippi State playing Texas in Dallas as the higher seed. Pittsburgh was the higher seed in its two games at home.

The committee was still keeping quiet on the missing quotient (I overheard it had to do with road games) that is keeping the Internet RPI in business. But the selection committee is discussing looking at adding another factor to the RPI -- rewards for road games. Some committee members are offering up a proposal to give a team credit for playing road games at a mid-major. Indiana played Butler in Indianapolis (even though the Hoosiers were the home team) last season. The Hoosiers played at Ball State this season. In this scenario, the Hoosiers would get some sort of power-rating push by playing these games.

"But remember the RPI is just one of the factors,'' Livengood said.

	“	By far, this is the best and it is the most time-consuming of any job outside (of being an AD). It's such a high. Twenty-five days until March. March 1 means March Madness. It's the best. ”
		— Jim Livengood, Arizona athletics director and NCAA selection committee chairman

My colleague at ESPN, Jay Bilas, took issue with this and he was right. Scheduling later in February is out of a team's control. But the committee simply applies the last 10 rule and that's why road victories later in the season will carry more weight than road victories in January. Livengood said the committee would take into account who a team plays but subjectively will look at it differently if a team sweeps road games in February. He said it might not be fair if a team is playing five of seven on the road to close the season. But the committee doesn't want a team limping into the tournament, either.