Two More 12-Seeds Advance Because of Course They Would

Call it the Battle Line of the Great Unwashed.

In essence, that's the demarcation of the No 12 seeds in the Big Dance.

It's the highest the Selection Committee will place those unavoidable champions who serve as bracket fodder for the big brands that secure at-large bids as if they were entitlements.

The hell of it is, though, some of those alleged non-power squads are pretty good. Take Yale and Arkansas-Little Rock, for instance:

Of course, losing to the so-called minnows is not a foreign concept to the Bears.

Case in point would be last year's tournament, when they faced 14-seed Georgia State:

Seems some of those smaller-conference champions actually have a few decent athletes.

As another example, here's that spunky crowed from Arkansas-Little Rock, winners of the Sun Belt Conference and 29-4 overall.

They're now 30-4 overall:

Clearly, some of these Brand X teams are more versatile than they're given credit.

It could be why they survived a season and a conference tournament to make it to the Dance.

But they'll never be given March Madness credit for being placed any higher than a No 12 unless, say, they're Gonzaga, who've built themselves into a national brand.

Even then, the Zags only managed a No 11 seed this year in what was an unremarkable season by their standards.

As if it mattered. RPI this:

As to the Selection Committee, those who don't learn from history ...

Yadda, yadda, yadda.