2040 Dance Partners, Building a Better Bracket w/ EC Hood: Part 3 Mar 10th

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

Our last bracketology before the field is announced sees fun matchups all over the place, tiers starting for form among the top teams, and some interesting jostling around the bubble.

The four No. 1 seeds right now are Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wichita State. Can that change? Sure. Texas is lurking should one of the teams above falter, and a title run for either UCLA or Miami would certainly make things interesting. Maryland is probably locked into a 2 after losing to Purdue in the Big Ten semis.

Speaking of Purdue, the Boilers are IN as a 12 seed and probably safe even with a loss in the next sim to Minnesota. Iowa also sneaks in from that league, salvaging what was looking like a down year with five teams in the dance.

Oklahoma is my last team in. The Sooners beat Baylor twice and didn’t stumble in Quadrant 4. Auburn is the first team out, and it was very close. Arizona State is making a late push after a win over Stanford. Oklahoma State and Loyola Marymount are going to be sweating it out on Selection Sunday.

Are there any bid stealers left? Sure are.

Fordham has advanced to the Atlantic 10 championship game as the 12 seed in that bracket. The Rams will face… the Rams of VCU, winners of three straight and a candidate to keep rising in the seeding with a victory.

DePaul stays alive in the Big East tourney and will take on Seton Hall in the semis. Butler doesn’t HAVE TO win vs. Georgetown in the other semifinal but it sure would help them. Things are going to be very tight for the Bulldogs.

USC is making a case for itself with a win over Oregon State. The Trojans can probably punch their ticket with an upset of juggernaut Colorado, but we can’t see that happening. Arizona State takes a huge step towards safety in the field with a win over UCLA.

In the American, SMU and Cincinnati lurk as spoilers, but Wichita State and Houston have paced the league all year and are heavy favorites to meet in the final.

Good luck everyone!

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. 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.
5. 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: Feb 6th