One of the items that will be hotly debated after the brackets for the 2011 NCAA Tournament are released is the final two #1 seeds, after Ohio State and Kansas, who are both locked into the top line.  There are five different teams that could land one of those last two #1 seeds, and one of them should be Notre Dame.

The Selection Committee has several factors that it takes into consideration when comparing teams, including RPI, Top 50 RPI Victories, Top 100 RPI Victories, record towards the end of the year (not official, but anecdotal evidence proves contrary), and key non-conference victories.  Another factor, conference record, is nominally used, but there have been several instances of teams finishing lower in-conference than other teams, yet making the tournament over them. The committee claims conference has no bearing on their decisions, but it does seem to play a non-trivial part.

The Fighting Irish boast one of the best Top 50 records in the country at 11-5, bested in wins only by Connecticut (who had 4 in 4 days), and possibly by Ohio State and Florida, who each have 11 and are playing in their conference championship games Sunday.  It also is better than Duke (7-2), San Diego State (5-2), Pittsburgh (9-5) and North Carolina (2-4), and in Duke’s case, four of their 7 wins came with Kyrie Irving, who will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

In non-conference play, ND defeated Conference Champions Indiana State, Gonzaga, along with victories over Georgia and Wisconsin on a neutral floor.  Their lone loss was a “neutral court” loss in Louisville against Kentucky.  Even though they finished one game behind Pittsburgh during Big East play, ND defeated the Panthers in Pittsburgh, and had tougher home-and-homes (UConn, Marquette, St. John’s) than Pitt (South Florida, West Virginia, and Villanova).  They also played a common opponent within the past 8 days (Connecticut), with ND winning in Storrs, and the Panthers losing at Madison Square Garden. It’s much easier to compare two teams that played each other, and the Fighting Irish look like a better team, right now, than the Panthers do.

Notre Dame is 10-2 in their last 12 games, and over the past 8 days have won at Connecticut (who then went on an unprecedented run to win 5 games in 5 days), completely dismantle a probable 6-8 seeded Cincinnati team by 38 points, and went to Overtime with a Louisville team who will end up a 3 or 4 seed, with Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough having the worst game of the season.

While it won’t be a travesty if the Irish don’t get a #1 seed, it’ll be interesting to see what the committee says about why another team was deserving over them. On paper, they are certainly deserving.  For 60 minutes Thursday/Friday night, they blew away two of the best defensive teams in the nation to the tune of 135 points.  When the brackets are announced Sunday evening, Notre Dame should be one of the four top teams, rewarded for a remarkable season.