Robert Valentin

Staff writer

Eastern Illinois has made the NCAA Tournament. Everyone can rejoice at the fact that the Panthers are making only their second trip to the big dance in the schools history, with their last appearance being in 1992.

However, instead of savoring the moment, everyone is trying to figure out what seed Eastern will be, who they will face and where it will take place.

Let me save you the trouble. There is absolutely no way of figuring out any of the aforementioned questions.

The only thing that can be determined is the fact that the Panthers will be playing either next Thursday or Friday in one of these eight sites: New Orleans, La. and Memphis, Tenn. in the South Regional, Long Island N.Y. and Greensboro N.C. in the East, Kansas City, Mo. and Dayton, Ohio in the Midwest and Boise Idaho and San Diego in the West.

I have already talked to Ohio Valley Conference head coaches from Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky and Southeast Missouri State, and all three coaches pretty much told me to not waste my time tying to figure out where Eastern will play.

When you’re looking at it from a fans standpoint, seeding is nothing but a crap shoot. You would have just as easy a time accurately predicting where a team will play by flipping a coin.

The selection committee usually assigns the top seed in each regional to the top team from that region but that’s not always the case. And Eastern Illinois is certainly not in the position to be contending for a top seed.

Stanford will be the top seed in the West and Illinois or Michigan St. will get the top spot in the Midwest, depending on who does better or wins the Big Ten Tournament. The winner of the ACC tournament, presumably Duke or North Carolina will get the No. 1 seed in the East while the other team is probably good enough to get the top seed in the South as long as they don’t fall apart in their conference tourney.

One of the major factors in determining seeding is not the polls but something called the Ratings Percentage Index, which takes into account Division I winning percentage (25%), schedule strength (50%) and opponents schedule strength (25%).

The Panthers will most likely be in the 14 or 15 seed range, depending on how many teams that have lower RPI’s win their respective conference. Eastern’s RPI ranking, as of March 2, was 116. Five teams who have already received their automatic bids have RPI rankings lower than Eastern: Iona (125), Princeton (131), Monmouth (158), Winthrop (185) and UNC Greensboro (191).

Injuries also seem to play a big part in determining seedings. If you remember last years tournament Cincinnati did not receive the No. 1 seed because Kenyon Martin was injured and the selection committee was hesitant to give away a top spot to a team that was missing their star player.

This scenario may happen again this year as Iowa is on the bubble and are playing without their top player Luke Recker. Because of this, the Hawkeyes may have a tough time convincing the selection committee to give them a spot.

The bottom line is that everyone should just relax and enjoy the moment. Come Sunday you can start planning your road trip to whatever site Eastern gets sent to.

After all, it’s pretty rare to be at a school around the 10,000 enrollment mark and actually have a team representing them in the NCAA Tournament. So revel in the moment, Eastern has made it to the big dance.