Not necessarily - at least in theory
What the committee chair said on the Podcast is that they would pick the 16 host sites and then they would bracket/select the team as they always have (in theory) and still pick the 16 most deserving teams to be #1 seeds in their pod. BUT, if one of those teams (or more) didn't land a hosting gig, they would go "on the road" but that team would still be the #1 seed in that pod.
His statement was " a #1 seed might have to travel." They’ll do their best to minimize that from happening, but “it could happen.”
That's the Company line, anyway. In reality, I have to think that if two teams are really, really close resume-wise, and the committee has to choose one to be #16 and one to be #17 and one of the two had already been awarded a hosting spot, that team would be "selected" as the #16 seed. That's just me being cynical, however.
If ia #1 seed did have to go "on the road," the only advantage they would have for being the #1 seed woud be the fact that they would play the #4 seed in game 1 and would be the home team. The home/away selections are basically rotated after the first set of games, but, subsequently, if two teams have been the home team and the visiting team the same # of times, the higher seed gets to be the home team.
Of course all of that would probably be offset if the #2 team was the host team and had the crowd advantage.
That's a long answer to your question. Sorry.
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In response to this post by VTHokie2000)
Posted: 04/13/2021 at 11:57PM