Joni Comstock Quotations

There are more than four teams under consideration for the four No. 1 seed slots, and there is nothing that would prevent the Atlantic Coast Conference from claiming three of those No. 1 positions.

I don't know that there's been a year where there's been greater parity. Strength of schedule is something we do look for and it's important to the committee. The schedule Tennessee played this year and plays most years, however, as close as it was, we felt that Tennessee this year was a No. 2 seed.

It appears to me at this time that it will take up a great deal of the committee's time to really consider all of the factors and make that decision. I think it's going to be a challenge.

I think there will be an awful lot of teams in that conference that will have a very careful review.

Western Kentucky really didn't have the strength of schedule we really were looking for.

We start with the win/loss record, and the strength of schedule for the team, and its opponent's strength of schedule. We also consider RPI, but a team is not in or out based solely on RPI. It is just a tool we use to organize the information. We also look at how well they are playing in the last half of the season to see if the team is improving.

We believe it is ? a good move to further differentiate and improve NCAA women's basketball. We can't predict for sure how it's going to impact the coverage. We're hoping it's going to be a positive thing.

We felt that Tennessee was a two-seed this year.

We chose this point of the season to release the RPI because the composition of each team's schedule is comprised of a blend of non-conference and conference games.

Rutgers was another team that posed a great challenge to us. Rutgers had two really tough losses during the season ... It was really close.

Strength of schedule is something we look for.

South Florida was a very interesting team for the committee to review. They had some good wins that were important to us.

As much as anything, we often have referred to 'Selection Sunday,' and that has become very much a tradition. However, I think that you can go back in our history, and we have done any number of things to take some risks.

Nothing would preclude it. It will be the teams that have performed throughout their season and have earned it.

In looking at Ohio State and Maryland, it was very, very close. Maryland was one of the teams the committee looked at very carefully in terms of consideration for a No. 1 seed. In our final judgment, two of the things that worked against Maryland were the four losses and it did not bring quite the strength of schedule as the other teams.

Certainly, they have good strength-of-schedule and a good RPI. But it certainly helps to win the tournament.

Head-to-head competition is one of the things that (NCAA Selection Committee members) look at very closely.