Sunday, November 26, 2006

Bracketology 101's First Field of 65 - Nov. 26

After a long vacation, several hollow promises of pre-season picks, and some fun message board banter about the future of Bracketology 101, here - finally - is our first bracket projection of 2006.

We apologize to our readers for its tardiness, and want to let all of you know that we appreciate your patience. Unfortunately, we began this site two years ago as something to do in out spare time, but in recent months, our lives have interfered with our ability to make time for predictions and projections. Without getting into too much detail, Craig is currently completing Marine fleet aviator training, which will culminate in a tour of Iraq in September. As he moves up in rank in the military and continues his flight training, his availability to contribute to the site has greatly decreased, and has caused us to re-evaluate what we wanted to do with Bracketology 101.

We originally thought of selling the site to another aspiring bracketologist (interested, pokerplayer?) , but ultimately decided that some Bracketology 101 is better than no Bracketology 101 at all. Each week throughout the course of the season, we (Chris) will post our updated Field of 65. We will also try to answer as many comments and e-mails as possible. Other than that, however, the editorial content on the site (Games To Watch, Top 10 Lists, etc.) that we posted daily last year will be pretty limited. The bracket itself will be our main focus. That's our plan - and we plan on sticking to it.

Thanks again for understanding. We're glad to have you aboard for what's shaping up to be another unpredictable, exciting college basketball season.

Enjoy the games,

Chris
Bracketology 101

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

Here is Bracketology 101's first Field of 65:

Last Four In
West Virginia, New Mexico, Xavier, Arkansas

Last Four Out
Wake Forest, Houston, Florida State, Iowa State

Conference Breakdown
Big East (8), ACC (7), SEC (6), Big Ten (5), Big XII (4), MVC (4), Pac-10 (4), MWC (3), A-10 (2)

America East - Albany

ACC - North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Clemson, Boston College

Atlantic Sun - Lipscomb

A-10 - George Washington, Xavier

Big East - Pittsburgh, Marquette, Syracuse, UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Louisville, West Virginia

Big Sky - Northern Arizona

Big South - Winthrop

Big Ten - Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Illinois

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma State

Big West - CS-Fullerton

Colonial - Old Dominion

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Penn

Metro Atlantic - Marist

MAC - Ohio

MCC - Oral Roberts

MEAC - Delaware State

MVC - Wichita State, Missouri State, Creighton, Southern Illinois

MWC - San Diego State, Air Force, New Mexico

Northeast - Robert Morris

Ohio Valley - Tennessee State

Pac-10 - UCLA, Washington, Arizona, Oregon

Patriot - Holy Cross

SEC - Florida, LSU, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas

Southern - Wofford

Southland - SE Louisiana

SWAC - Alabama A&M

Sun Belt - Western Kentucky

WAC - Nevada

WCC - Gonzaga

The Seeds

The 1s
UCLA, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Florida

The 2s
North Carolina, LSU, Ohio State, Alabama

The 3s
Marquette, Duke, Texas A&M, Washington

The 4s
Memphis, Wisconsin, Syracuse, UConn

The 5s
Nevada, Wichita State, Maryland, Gonzaga

The 6s
Georgia Tech, Butler, Georgetown, Michigan State

The 7s
Texas, Arizona, San Diego State, Michigan

The 8s
Illinois, Virginia, George Washington, Oklahoma State

The 9s
Kentucky, Missouri State, Villanova, Clemson

The 10s
Creighton, Oregon, Tennessee, Boston College

The 11s
Southern lllinois, Louisville, Air Force, West Virginia

The 12s
Old Dominion, New Mexico, Xavier, Arkansas

The 13s
Winthrop, Western Kentucky, Oral Roberts, Ohio

The 14s
Albany, Penn, Holy Cross, Marist

The 15s
Northern Arizona, Lipscomb, Robert Morris, Wofford

The 16s
CS-Fullerton, Tennessee State, SE Louisiana, Delaware State (Play-In Game), Alabama A&M (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
This Week's Bracket - Nov. 26

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

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

John Beilein will deserve coach of the year if WVU actually makes the big dance. But I doubt that will happen when they get into the teeth of the conference schedule. Its hard to imagine Arizona only getting a 7 seed. If so, Lute should be fired. ZOna is way too talented to be that mediocre. The PAC 10 will get at least 5 teams in this year to the chagrin of the west coast haters like Duke Vitale.

Bracketology 101 said...

We must have jinxed WVU, who lost hours after this week's bracket was posted. It was tough to pick a team from amongst the "untested unbeatens" to be one of the last four in this week. We went with the Mountaineers (over Iowa State, Wake, Missouri, etc.) because they had a shot to pick up a good OOC win against Arkansas.

Arizona was bumped down to a 7 only because of the early season play of Butler, Wichita, Gonzaga, and Maryland (to name a few teams). When all is said and done, the Wildcats will no doubt be a couple of seed lines higher than that.

Anonymous said...

How hypocritical of you. Two years ago you guys blasted T. Mejia and J. Lunardi for their early season projections and now you do the same ?

Just like every other endeavor, when you guys can not do better than the competition, you follow the competition.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine Wake not in it but i guess that couuld happen

Anonymous said...

Nah, I think when it's all said and done, Wake is in.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I want to thank you for serving our country in Iraq. I respect the job our troops are doing to protect us. I am really looking forward to the Wake Forest-Air Force game. I would be very surprised if Wake could win but if they keep it close it good be a good loss for the Deacs. Will Florida State need 10 conference wins to get in if they lose to both Wisconsin & Florida this week. FSU was very dissappointing in their loss at Pitt. I thought they might at least be competitive in that game. GW got crushed up in Providence.
Do you guys really think Conference USA will only get 1 bid? That would be very pathetic but I think Houston will also get in & possibly a 3rd team. Houston has a good shot to go in & beat an overrated Kentucky team.

Anonymous said...

Missouri? They havent beaten anyone except all their cupcakes. How in the world do they deserve a bid??

Anonymous said...

You put UVA in an 8 seed right now but they will get a higher seed in March. I know that sounds like b.s. but itll happen. Youll see

Anonymous said...

Just as expected, only 10 posts (3 of which are nothing more than critical) to your "preseason" Field of 65. Looks like almost everyone got the message and bailed for a better site that is devoted to their readers.

Anonymous said...

You don't like the way they run things? Don't let the door hit you too hard on the way out, Skippy.

Anonymous said...

If i did, they would lose half the posts on here.

Anonymous said...

I changed my mind. You guys are great

Anonymous said...

Sarcasm, Right?

Anonymous said...

A few things about your bracket would cause big controversy. Illinois as an 8th seed playing in CHicago would be unfair to both Clemson & most of all 1 seed Kansas. 3 seed Texas A&M getting to play in the San Antonio regional would be unfair to Florida & UNC. Pitt should be put in the Buffalo pod not Columbus. Especially if you have Kentucky in their pod. A 9th seed like UK should not get put so close to home in Columbus.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Natty and I see Virginia being very good all year & getting like a 6 seed and being a dangerous team come March. Georgetown needs to get on track soon before they dig too big of hole before Big East play.
I just don't understand why people like Jay Bilas and Seth Davis talk like Kansas is so great. THey have a very ordinary frontcourt & don't play strong defense all the time. Bill Self needs to get better control of his team if they will live up to the hype

Anonymous said...

Wow a Sunday full of strange scores! FSU finally got a big time win. New Mexico got pounded badly. Nevada got another nice win over Cal. Texas Tech losing to Stanford could crush them come March. This coming week is going to be a huge one for teams like LSU & Texas A&M. The Aggies would be great to get a split against UCLA/LSU. Notre Dame has another chance for a great over Bama

Anonymous said...

About the bracketing questions...

Rule 15 in the placement phase of the principles and procedures states

"To ensure equitable competitive opportunities, the committee shall not place teams seeded on the first five lines at a potential 'home-crowd disadvantage' in the first round."

The rules also of course state that teams should be placed in areas of natural interest, while saying nothing about "home crowd disadvantages" after the first round, and in the first round, only protect seeds 1-5. Other than that the rules instruct us to put teams as close to home at all possible times. That's why you get Kentucky in Columbus, Illinois in Chicago, Texas A&M in San Antonio. To be honest with you, by the time you are placing 8 and 9 seeds in the bracket, you don't really have much of an opportunity to place teams close to home as other rules such as keeping conference teams away from each other take precedence. By then so many other teams from the big conferences are in the bracket and you have to avoid those, as well as avoid rematches in the first and second round. With so many rules governing placement, it is almost impossible to prevent all home crowd disadvantages, which is probably why the principles only mention the few places that they do for preventing them.

As far as Pittsburgh in Buffalo instead of Columbus, google tells me that Columbus is 185 miles away and a 3 hr 17 min drive, while Buffalo is 216 miles away and a 3 hr 43 min drive. It could really go either way I guess, but Columbus is technically closer.

Anonymous said...

That bracket projection is wrong. You can bank on the fact that an 8 seed like Illinois would be put in Chicago. But after last week, Illinois can forget even being in next weeks bracket. Wow it would be a mess A&M as a 3 seed got put in San Antonio. It would be shades of Syracuse getting to play in Albany as a 3 seed. big mistakes

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Anonymous said...

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