NCAA official: Tourney seeds not manipulated

The senior vice president in charge of men's basketball and the NCAA tournament says there's no truth to Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin's allegation that the selection committee makes decisions in the interest of ticket sales.

Dan Gavitt rebutted Cronin's claim that teams are moved up and down seed lines to create matchups and improve ticket sales.

"Mick's assertion that this was a fact is not true," Gavitt said. "When it happened in the past, it was for separating conference opponents, not ticket sales."

In 2014, the NCAA changed bracketing principles, allowing conference opponents to meet as early as the second round if they played once in the regular season or as early as the Sweet 16 if they…