The underseeding of quality mid-majors has been happening for decades. Back in the 90s when the MAC was regularly churning out NBA players and teams like Ball State, EMU and Fiami made runs, the MAC was always the same crappy 12+ seed no matter what any other ranking system said it should be. The moneyed conferences control the committee and the moneyed conferences want all the high seeds. The funny part is when that avarice bites them in the ass like it did to Illinois this year... and they complain about the rigged system that they rigged themselves. Hoist by their own petard.
+1
Hit the old nail on the head with that one! Not only has the seeding been rigged, but the selection of at-large teams has been rigged. In the past 20+ years there have been several times that a second MAC team deserved a bid, but didn't get one because some mediocre 8th place team in a so-called power conference had to be let in to lose by double-digits to Little Sisters of the Poor in the first round.