Monday, January 07, 2008

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Jan. 7

The Breakdown
The start of conference play brought its typical craziness to the bracket, as a total of six major or mid-major bids changed hands this week. The Pac-10 and the Big East continue to be extremely tough conferences to figure out and to seed. Losses by USC, Providence, and Louisville knocked them out of the field, and they were replaced by Arizona State, Notre Dame, and Syracuse. We had removed the Orange from the bracket a few weeks ago after Eric Devendorf was lost for the year, but the continued improvement of the team’s talented freshmen (albeit against weak competition) and the fact that the Big East really has no better options at this point, gave Syracuse an opportunity to grab a bid. The other major development since our last Field of 65 is the upside-down world of the MVC, where bracket mainstays Southern Illinois and Creighton have been bumped (Southern Illinois maybe for good) and replaced by surprise conference leaders Drake and Illinois State. While we don’t have a ton of confidence in Illinois State at the moment, the Redbirds are 3-0 in the league and the MVC is worthy of two bids. The same could be said of the MWC, which earned a second bid this week with the addition of New Mexico to the field. We still like BYU to win the league’s regular season title, but we do not think the Cougars are a lock to win what will be a very competitive MWC tournament. We’re going with the upstart Lobos, who will bring a lot of OOC momentum into the MWC season, over UNLV and San Diego State as the conference’s second bid.

Out This Bracket
USC, Creighton, Providence, Louisville, Kansas State, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky, Alabama A&M

In This Bracket
Notre Dame, Drake, Arizona State, Syracuse, New Mexico, Illinois State, South Alabama, Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Last Four In
Nebraska, Syracuse, New Mexico, Illinois State

Last Four Out
Louisville, Florida, Boston College, USC

Next Four Out
Kansas State, Providence, Connecticut, UNLV

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

America East - UMBC

ACC - North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Miami-FL, North Carolina State, Virginia

Atlantic Sun - East Tennessee State

A-10 - Xavier, Dayton, Rhode Island, Massachusetts

Big East - Georgetown, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Syracuse

Big Sky - Northern Arizona

Big South - Winthrop

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

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor, Nebraska

Big West - UC-Santa Barbara

Colonial - George Mason

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Siena

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Hampton

MVC - Drake, Illinois State

MWC - BYU, New Mexico

Northeast
- Wagner

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Washington State, Arizona, Stanford, California, Oregon, Arizona State

Patriot - Holy Cross

SEC - Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Arkansas

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Sam Houston State

Summit - IUPUI

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Arkansas-Pine Bluff

WAC - Utah State

WCC - St. Mary's, Gonzaga

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The Seeds
The 1s

North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, UCLA

The 2s
Washington State, Duke, Michigan State, Tennessee

The 3s
Texas, Texas A&M, Georgetown, Vanderbilt

The 4s
Wisconsin, Indiana, Butler, Marquette

The 5s
Mississippi, Xavier, Clemson, Dayton

The 6s
Pittsburgh, Miami-FL, St. Mary’s, Villanova

The 7s
Arizona, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Ohio State

The 8s
Notre Dame, West Virginia, Stanford, Gonzaga

The 9s
California, Drake, North Carolina State, Baylor

The 10s
Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, Virginia

The 11s
BYU, Arizona State, Nebraska, Syracuse

The 12s
New Mexico, Illinois State, Kent State, George Mason

The 13s
South Alabama, Sam Houston State, Davidson, Utah State

The 14s
UC-Santa Barbara, Winthrop, Siena, Holy Cross

The 15s
Cornell, IUPUI, Hampton, Northern Arizona

The 16s
East Tennessee State, UMBC, Wagner, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)




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

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy, I hope Dayton isn't a 5 seed. That's like a death sentence. If they beat Rhode Island, maybe they can work their way to a 4 seed.

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