Bracketology from the Sports Sentimentalist- March 5th Edition
Posted by deaconcat08 on March 5, 2010
The teams below are displayed below on an S-curve, so they are ranked from left to right within each seeding line. The italicized teams are ones predicted to win their conference tourney and gain an automatic bid to the dance. The bolded teams have already won an auto bid to either the NCAA or NIT tournament (ex: Lipscomb). For the conferences who currently have NCAA tourney teams, it is assumed that one of those teams will win their conference tourney. If not, then a stolen bid would result, and the number of at-large bids would drop.
You will notice that some of the # 13 seeded conference champions are listed both in the big dance field and the NIT field. Their NIT inclusion simply shows what NIT seed that team would have if they were to lose in their conference tourney. Obviously, if they were to win their respective conference tourneys, then they would be deleted from the NIT field, and little dance at-large spots would open up. However, with the NIT, keep in mind that typically between 5-8 spots will be taken by small conference regular season champs who lose their conference tourneys and thereby get NIT auto bids (ex: Lipscomb).
NCAA Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky, Purdue
2-seeds: Duke, Villanova, Kansas State, West Virginia
3-seeds: Vanderbilt, New Mexico, Ohio State, Michigan State
4-seeds: Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Temple
5-seeds: Gonzaga, Brigham Young, Xavier, Butler
6-seeds: Maryland, Baylor, Texas, Georgetown
7-seeds: Richmond, Texas A & M, Missouri, California
8-seeds: Marquette, Louisville, UTEP, UNLV
9-seeds: Oklahoma State, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech
10-seeds: Virginia Tech, Northern Iowa, Wake Forest, Saint Mary’s
11-seeds: Florida, Cornell, Illinois, Siena
12-seeds: Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Utah State, UAB
13-seeds: Rhode Island, San Diego State, Kent State, Murray State
14-seeds: Oakland, Sam Houston State, Wofford, Weber State
15-seeds: UC Santa Barbara, Morgan State, Troy, Coastal Carolina
16-seeds: Stony Brook, Jacksonville, Quinnipiac, Lehigh, Jackson State
NIT Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Memphis, Ole Miss, Connecticut, Mississippi State
2-seeds: Seton Hall, Minnesota, South Florida, Washington
3-seeds: Cincinnati, Arizona State, Dayton, Charlotte
4-seeds: Wichita State, Tulsa, Marshall, Saint Louis
5-seeds: William & Mary, VCU, Northeastern, Northwestern
6-seeds: North Carolina, New Mexico State, Miami-FL, Texas Tech
7-seeds: St. John’s, Kent State, Murray State, Oakland
8-seeds: Louisiana Tech, Nevada, Illinois State, Lipscomb
Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Rutgers, South Carolina, Boston College, Nevada, Arizona, Portland, Washington State, Alabama