📄 2036 Dance Partners, Building a Better Bracket w/ EC Hood: Part 3 Mar 9th

Dance Partners, Building a Better Bracket. A bracketology presentation by EC Hood

With just a few days left in the season, the bracket is starting to really take shape. Of course, the major conference tournament results will make a difference in seeding for many teams, but if the four 1 seeds here hold on to win their leagues they should hold on to their seeds. The Pac 12 winner (if it’s Stanford or Colorado) could have something to say, as well as Baylor and Notre Dame if either school wins out. UNLV is probably in the most danger of losing a 1 if they can’t get through the Mountain West.

Joining the party this time are South Carolina, Memphis, Cal and DePaul, though each could use another win or two to solidify their spots. Evansville’s loss in the Missouri Valley quarters spells doom for their chances, at least in this version of the bracket. If teams above them falter, they could sneak in, certainly in the actual game. Some other “out” mid-majors with quality NET rankings who could steal bids in the game include: Kent State, Hawaii, Southern Mississippi, Hampton, Northern Iowa and Montana. Kent State could still win the MAC over Buffalo, which would put the Bulls in jeopardy in this exercise but scare the heck out of bubble teams in the game. Ditto for losses to Charleston, Middle Tennessee or Georgia Southern in the next sim. The game’s NET rankings like these teams enough to make a lot of bubble teams very nervous on Selection Sunday.

We’ll revisit in a day or two to see if any major conference upsets loom that could shake things up even further.

The Rules:

1. No two teams from the same conference will play each other before the Elite 8 unless impossible to avoid.
2. No at-large teams will be seeded below the 12 line unless impossible to avoid. The play-in at-large teams will always be the last four at-large teams that made it.
3. Note: Conference champion bid predictions are determined by the team with the best in-conference record, and higher NET ranking if tied, at the time of the update if the league title game hasn’t been played yet.
4. I will tend to give an edge to power conference teams in seeding. This is a personal preference that has more to do with thinking the NET rankings in the game overpower smaller schools and mid majors than anything else.
5. This is not a prediction of what the actual bracket will end up being in the game. It is a prediction of what the bracket would be if this season occurred in real life right now and was picked by the NCAA committee.
6. I’m not quite the NCAA committee – I’m not going to examine every injury to determine if a result was legit or not and I probably won’t have time to drill down into every team sheet. In the end, this is just for fun.

IN GAME DATE: Mar 9th