The Crimson, who will make their first tourney appearance since 1946 when they take on Vanderbilt on Thursday, were thrilled to be the No. 12 seed in the East Regional against the fifth-seeded Commodores.
A CBS Sports bracket prediction had placed Harvard as high as a 10 seed in the Midwest, but that would have cost the Crimson a chance to play a third-round game in Boston.
Granted, that's getting several steps ahead, but it's a nice carrot on the end of the stick.
Even without the Ivy League title, the Crimson would have had a strong chance for tournament inclusion. With the title, the Crimson shot up from the lowly seedings Ivy teams usually receive. Victories over ACC Tournament champ Florida State, 20-win Saint Joseph's from a strong Atlantic 10 Conference and Vermont, which will face Lamar in a play-in game Thursday, bolstered Harvard's resume.
But Harvard's seed was similar to what recent Ivy champs have received. Princeton was a No. 13 seed last season after 12th-seeded Cornell advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2010. No Ivy League team had advanced that far since Penn made it to the 1979 Final Four, so the committee's reluctance to grant an Ivy League team a higher seed was understandable.
The Crimson like their seed, but an argument can be made they deserved to be seeded higher — or lower.
What seed did Harvard deserve in the NCAA Tournament?
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