Congrats and Thanks

Congratulations to T. Stote who was the winner of Bracketology 101's Bracket Challenge. He was able to top 140 other entries including Craig and Chris who finished 7th and 11th, respectively.

We'd like to thank everyone for another great year at B101. We appreciated all of the questions, comments, and support.

Check back in the next few weeks for NBA draft news and in the fall for our preseason bracket.

Down To Three...

In B101's Tourney Challenge group. It's a battle between M. Comisky, C. Fox, and T. Stote for the $50 prize. A Michigan State win gives Fox the win, while Comisky and Stote are pulling for UNC. If UNC does win and it comes down to the tie-breaker, Comisky will be looking for a game in the 60s, while Stote wants one in the 80s.

Sorry we haven't made many comments in regards to the tourney, but overall it's been a bit of a disappointment. Is it just us or was Championship Week a lot more exciting?

Bracketology 101's Bracket Picks

To view or download Chris', Craig's, and Matt's complete tournament bracket, click on the title of this post.

The brackets are printable and are saved in .pdf format.

Good luck in your office pools...

*Note: If the top link is not working for you, try this one.

Bracketology 101's Tournament Challenge

Do you want to see how your NCAA Tournament picks stack up against the guys from B101? Sign up for Bracketology 101's Tournament Challenge group at ESPN.com.

This year's winner receives a $50 gift card of their choice. The only rule to receive the gift card is that each person may only submit one bracket.

*Note: Group is now closed.

More Bracket Stats (We're Still No. 1...)

The Bracket Matrix has posted his final results matrix for all 61 brackets he monitors. He ranked the top brackets by category (number of exact seeds, etc.) and listed overall results based on the Paymon scoring system, which gives brackets three points for each correct team, two points for each exact seed, and one point for each team within one seed line.

This year we finished fifth in the overall standings and we tied for first in the number of exact seeds picked (35). We are the only bracketology site to finish in the top five in the overall standings each of the past four years, and over the last four years, we continue to be - by a pretty significant margin - the most consistently accurate bracketology site out there. This year, we finished well above the average bracket score of 303.4.

Top overall brackets for 2009 (Paymon scoring):
Bracketography: 325
Yahoo! Rivals : 318
Baseline Stats: 317
Bracketville: 316
Bracketology 101: 315
Jerry Palm (CollegeRPI.com): 315
Joe Lunardi's score: 307

Ranking The Bracketologists (*UPDATED to include 2009 stats*)
1. Bracketology 101
2. March Madness All Season
3. The Bracket Project
4. Bracketography
5. The Bracket Board
10. Joe Lunardi (ESPN.com)

For the complete rundown of how everyone fared this year, click here.

For an updated Ranking The Bracketologists list - which ranks bracketologists on how they fared over the past four years, click here.

Bracketology 101's Final Bracket Stats

Here are our final numbers for this year's bracket:

Teams correct: 64/65
Exact seeds: 35/65
Seeds within one of seed line: 53/65
*Paymon score: 315

For a complete breakdown of how every bracketologist did in predicting the field, click here.

All in all, we were slightly disappointed with our final stats, but pretty pleased with how we did this year compared to other bracketologists. It turned out to be a tough year for everyone seed-wise, but we think that our 315 Paymon score will put us among the top couple of scores yet again, and keep us atop The Bracket Project standings as the most accurate bracket over the last four years. We had hoped to match our 40-60 performance from last year, but some interesting seeding by the committee and some regrettable last-day changes prevented us from doing that.

Like everyone, we were pretty surprised that Arizona got in, considering their awful road record and the fact that they lost four of their last five games. Once USC won the Pac-10 tournament, we all but eliminated Arizona from serious at-large consideration. We thought a mid-major team like St. Mary's (or SDSU or Creighton) was worthy of that final spot, but yet again, the committee showed no love to the little guy. We are even more surprised that the big conference team they chose in the end was Arizona (over Penn State). The Wildcats were rewarded for what they did out of conference, and that gave them the edge over the OOC-challenged Nittany Lions. There were a handful of seeds given out that we found a little confusing, too. Boston College (and their 60 RPI) getting a 7 seed was the most shocking, and a Jerome Dyson-less UConn getting the last 1 seed over Michigan State or Memphis was a little bit of a surprise, too. Siena (a 9), Utah State (an 11), Marquette (a 6), Butler (a 9), Ohio State (an 8) and Wisconsin (a 12) all got questionable seeds as well, we thought.

Looking back over the season, we are proud of a couple of the predictions we made along the way. We thought all along that the Big Ten would get seven bids, and after a lot of debate, (especially on this site) that's exactly what they got. We also thought the MWC would max out at three bids (not 4 or 5 like some people had), and in the end only two teams from the conference made it. Finally, we were correct in predicting that Maryland would find its way back in the bracket and that the A-10 would eventually produce a bid-stealer. We had Temple in as our original A-10 bid stealer three week ago, and the Owls ended up making the field alongside Xavier and Dayton.

In the next couple of days, we will post our Final Four picks and our complete brackets. We will also set up the annual Bracketology 101 Tournament Challenge group on ESPN.com. The winner of this year's Tournament Challenge will get a $50 gift card of their choice.

In the meantime, feel free to post any bracket-questions in the comments section of this post. We'll check in periodically to answer as many of them as we can. Thanks to the tens of thousands of people who visited the site over the last week, and to the hundreds who posted comments and questions.

Enjoy filling out your brackets...

Live Selection Show Feedback

Here are our running thoughts as the bracket gets announced:

Wow! 3 Big East #1s. UConn always gets favorable seeding.

Big Ten not getting much love, Ohio State a 8.

Arizona in, WOW! That looks like the last team in.

Maryland looking good with BC getting a 7.

B101 can forget about getting 60 seeds within 1 this year.

Looks like the little guy is gonna get screwed. No SDSU, St Mary's or Creighton.

It's over for the bubble teams...9-12 lines will be Michigan, Western Kentucky, Temple, and LSU.

Bracketology 101's Final Field of 65

Bracket Breakdown
Here is Bracketology 101's Final Field of 65:

A couple of notes:
St. Mary's is our last at-large team in the field despite the fact that they are on the 11 line. We had to put Maryland down on the 12 line for numbers purposes.

Penn State was knocked out today by Mississippi State.

Last Four In
Minnesota, Dayton, Maryland, St. Mary's

Last Four Out
Penn State, San Diego State, Creighton, Arizona

Next Four Out
Auburn, Providence, South Carolina, Florida

---------------------------------------------------------------

The Seeds
The 1s
North Carolina, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Michigan State

The 2s
Connecticut, Duke, Memphis, Oklahoma

The 3s
Missouri, Wake Forest, Villanova, Kansas

The 4s
Syracuse, Florida State, Washington, Gonzaga

The 5s
Illinois, Purdue, Xavier, Arizona State

The 6s
UCLA, Utah, West Virginia, Ohio State

The 7s
Tennessee, Texas, Clemson, Butler

The 8s
LSU, Marquette, California, Oklahoma State

The 9s
BYU, Utah State, Michigan, Texas A&M

The 10s
Boston College, Wisconsin, Minnesota, USC

The 11s
Siena, Dayton, Temple, St. Mary's

The 12s
Maryland, Mississippi State, Western Kentucky, Northern Iowa

The 13s
Cleveland State, VCU, Binghamton, American

The 14s
Stephen F. Austin, North Dakota State, Portland State, Akron

The 15s
Cornell, Morgan State, Robert Morris, East Tennessee State

The 16s
Cal State Northridge, Radford, Morehead State, Chattanooga (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In-Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)













Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

Selection Sunday Bracket Talk

We are putting the final touches on our Final Field of 65, which will be released around 4 p.m. ET.

In the meantime, readers can use this post to ask questions, discuss the bubble, or make their own predictions about who's in, who's out, and who's seeded where. We will check in periodically to answer questions.

Enjoy the last few hours before the Slection Show...