The 5 Most Underrated Teams in the NCAA Tournament

As soon as the NCAA Tournament brackets are released each year, any diligent bracket pool participant begins the search for value among the seedings and pairings. Therein lies the opportunity to nail the first-round upsets, the surprise second weekend teams, and maybe even the stealth Final Four contender.

By comparing the Selection Committee's seedings to our nERD ratings, which measure the point spread a team would win by against an average opponent at a neutral site, we can try to discover the areas where the bracket's resume-based seedings differ from how good a team really is. 

While some teams may be a bit lower-seeded because of youth, injuries, strength of schedules, or failing to live up to their potential, there always seems to be a surprise team or two from that group that finally puts it together come tournament time. 

Here are five teams that could prove to outperform their placement in this year's brackets.