In addition to betting, griping usually follows Selection Sunday. The decision regarding which 34 teams will receive at-large bids to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is necessarily subjective -- teams wait to learn their fate, unsure if the selection committee will give them a March Madness berth.
Virginia freshman Claire Crippen, on the other hand, has known she would be competing in the NCAA Division I Women's Swimming Championship since December.
Using objective time standards, the NCAA Championship features the top 30 athletes nationwide in each event, and Crippen demonstrated she deserved a place among the best during December's Georgia Invitational. Her 400 individual medley time of 4:11.87 not only won her first place but also qualified her for the championship meet that begins tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio.
"It has been so exciting looking forward to this meet," Crippen said. "It's a chance to do even better and improve my time."
The Cavaliers, recently crowned ACC champions, are sending 10 women to compete in 14 events. In addition to Crippen, sophomore Mei Christensen, freshman Hanna Davis, junior Megan Evo, senior Stephanie Glover, sophomore Jenna Harris, senior Jessica Lewis, sophomore Jen Narum, freshman Liz Shaw and junior Kristen Wallace will represent Virginia.
In head-to-head competition, Virginia closed out the dual meet season ranked 10th nationally. Placing 39th overall at the NCAA meet last year, the team has its sights set on finishing among the top 25 if not the top 20.
Unlike dual meets, invitationals or the ACC Championship, the NCAA meet does not begin with all schools on equal ground. This year, 16 of the 55 teams going to the championship only qualified one person and will definitely not walk away with the NCAA title.
"The teams who qualify the most people stand a much better chance to win," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "Taking a look at where we were a year ago, and with such a young team now, our goal is to take a significant step forward."
While winning the ACC Championship provides the Virginia women with momentum going into this weekend, the excitement of taking home the conference crown could have been a distraction.
"We knew as soon as we came back that we only had a day or two to enjoy the championship," Crippen said. "Our energy was so high but we knew that we had to come back down and focus on NCAAs. If we were focusing on what had happened at ACCs, what we had done in the past, then we wouldn't be able to accomplish our goals at NCAAs."
Bernardino admitted it is always a big challenge to keep the athletes excited, motivated and moving in a positive direction after spending the entire season focusing on the ACC Championship meet. Having peaked just a month earlier, it is extremely difficult for the athletes to start working hard again and then taper before focusing on speed and pace work to hit a second peak in time for NCAAs.
Nevertheless, the team is confident it has done its necessary preparation and expects that, despite the competitive nature of the tournament, Virginia will have a strong performance.
"This is the fastest women's meet in the history of NCAA swimming," Bernardino said. "It has lots of great American and international athletes and is going to be an incredibly fast swim meet. We are going there to compete well, start moving up the ladder and make a positive showing for ourselves"
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