Posted at 1:45 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

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Men's Basketball Championship

Midwest Region - First Four - UD Arena - Dayton, OH

Colorado State -2½ over Virginia

Streaming: truTV

9:10 PM EST. If there was a game to show just how much has changed in the college hoops landscape in the last decade, this is it, as we find Power Six and Atlantic Coast Conference staple, the Cavaliers of Virginia, as an underdog to a mid-major side from the Mountain West Conference, the Rams of Colorado State. There was a time when consideration for mid-major teams outside of the conference champions was nearly non-existent, as the quality of competition in those smaller conferences was not thought to be up to par with the big boys, but that is not the case anymore as there are quality shooters on teams all across the country.

The gap in talent between the Power Six conferences and the high-end mid-majors might not be smaller than it is right now, and to that point, the selection committee took a record six teams—SIX—from the Mountain West (San Diego State, Nevada, New Mexico, Boise State, Utah State, and Colorado State) this season and just five from one of college hoops' blue-blood conferences in the ACC (North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State, Clemson, and Virginia). A situation such as that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.

While their representation is at an all-time high, we can’t help but point out that the Mountain West Rams got the shaft here with a “play-in” #10 seed after they finished the season 24-10, and as the #38 team in the national power rankings. Those power rankings are far more reflective of a team's quality than the polls or the selection committee would have you believe. That committee often whiffs on teams that should be in and aren’t, and this year was no different with the #25 (Saint John’s), #31 (Wake Forest), #35 (Villanova), and #37 (Cincinnati) ranked schools not making the cut. Wake Forest, a fellow ACC school, not getting the nod over Virginia who ranks #69 is a crime.

To that end, the Cavaliers are over-seeded here (if they should even be here at all, but we digress), as teams like McNeese State and James Madison, who are ranked #59 and #60, are #12 seeds, and N.C. State, another ACC side, which ranks #58, is an #11 seed. At the end of the day, the Rams are underranked and the Cavs are overranked, but this spread does not reflect the gap in quality on both sides. The Rams should be spotting a more significant pile of points here, but they aren’t. Underlay.

Sherwood

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