The first half of Championship Week is all about the teams outside the power conferences. Since Saturday, 11 teams have claimed automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. However, starting today, the power conferences and bubble teams start their final push toward an at-large bid in earnest.
Here are a few important notes from the past few days.
- Villanova’s stock is dropping like a rock. The Wildcats are a No. 10 seed in this Projected Field, though we moved them down a notch from their No. 9 seed on the S-curve to more easily slot all 11 Big East teams.
- The arrival of Arkansas-Little Rock in the field will likely allow UNC-Asheville, Boston University or McNeese State to avoid the First Four games among the No. 16 seeds — assuming Boston University and McNeese State go on to win their conference tournaments.
- Boston College and Marshall can breathe a little easier for the moment after Butler beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Old Dominion beat VCU, thus preventing those teams from stealing a bid and requiring the Bulldogs or Monarchs to grab one of the precious few at-large bids.
- Princeton beat Penn Tuesday night, which sets up what amounts to an Ivy League championship game on a neutral court Saturday when the Tigers will play Harvard for the right to go to the NCAA Tournament.
Let’s get to the brackets. In this edition, we slot teams in regions and match ups. As always, please share your thoughts.
Here are links to the recent projected fields.
Projected Field 6.0
Projected Field 5.0
Projected Field 4.0
Projected Field 3.0
Projected Field 2.0
Projected Field 1.0
In addition, take a look at the bracket projections from a whole slew of different sources, updated daily by the good folks at the Bracket Project.
East(Newark)
|
(1) Ohio State vs. (16) McNeese State (Southland) vs. Arkansas-Little Rock (Sun Belt) (Cleveland)
(8) Florida State vs. (9) Georgia (Cleveland) (4) Syracuse vs. (13) Morehead State (OVC) (Tucson) (5) Texas A&M vs. (12) UAB (Conference USA) (Tucson) (2) Texas vs. (15) Saint Peter’s (Metro Atlantic) (Tulsa) (7) UNLV vs. (10) Marquette (Tulsa) (3) Florida vs. (14) Long Island (NEC) (Tampa) (6) Cincinnati vs. (11) Richmond (Tampa) |
West(Anaheim)
|
(1) Notre Dame vs. (16) UNC-Asheville (Big South) (Chicago)
(8) Kansas State vs. (9) Tennessee (Chicago) (4) San Diego State vs. (13) Oakland (Summit) (Tucson) (5) Georgetown vs. (12) Boston College vs. Michigan (Tucson) (2) BYU vs. (15) Northern Colorado (Big Sky) (Denver) (7) UCLA vs. (10) Michigan State (Denver) (3) North Carolina vs. (14) Kent State (MAC) (Charlotte) (6) Missouri vs. (11) Gonzaga (West Coast) (Charlotte) |
Southwest(San Antonio) |
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Bethune-Cookman (MEAC) vs. Texas Southern (SWAC) (Tulsa)
(8) George Mason vs. (9) Utah State (WAC) (Tulsa) (4) St. John’s vs. (13) Belmont (Ohio Valley) (Tampa) (5) Vanderbilt vs. (12) Clemson vs. Marshall (Tampa) (2) Purdue vs. (15) Indiana State (Missouri Valley) (Chicago) (7) Xavier vs. (10) Butler (Horizon) (Chicago) (3) Louisville vs. (14) Bucknell (Patriot) (Washington) (6) Arizona vs. (11) Virginia Tech (Washington) |
Southeast(New Orleans) |
(1) Pittsburgh vs. (16) Boston University (America East) (Cleveland)
(8) Temple vs. (9) Illinois (Cleveland) (4) West Virginia vs. (13) Colorado (Washington) (5) Kentucky vs. (12) Harvard (Ivy) (Washington) (2) Duke vs. (15) Wofford (Southern) (Charlotte) (7) Old Dominion vs. (10) Villanova (Charlotte) (3) Wisconsin vs. (14) Long Beach State (Big West) (Denver) (6) Connecticut vs. (11) Washington (Denver) |
Last Eight In: |
Washington
Richmond Virginia Tech Colorado Clemson Michigan Marshall Boston College |
First Eight Out:
|
Memphis
UAB (if needed) USC Minnesota VCU Nebraska Penn State Colorado State |
Conference
|
Big East: 11
ACC: 6 Big 12: 6 Big Ten: 6 SEC: 5 Atlantic 10: 3 Mountain West: 3 Pac-10: 3 CAA: 2 Conference USA: 2 21 one-bid conferences |
What are you smoking?