bukie

This is one of the problems with doing a bracketology from the start of the season. One team has a good week and they hang around the bracket way past a reasonable time.

Ivy has a 4 teams tournament this year.

UNC-Asheville is one second from taking a bad loss in the Big South quarters, mostly due to a 51 point performance from Campbell's Chris Clemons. Already they had an uphill battle for at-large consideration due to their weak conference slate, their raw RPI numbers are going to take a hit after this.

And he used Szczurs bat.

#42: Rizzo Finally Gets One to Stay Fair Why on the list? - Easy to forget with all the winning, but Rizzo (and the majority of the offense) had a miserable start to the postseason. Most of the runs driven in the NLDS were pitchers or Baez/Bryant, and the Dodgers series started out with one amazing grand slam, but after that the Cubs were completely shut down for two games. They finally broke out in game 4, and Rizzo finally got his first extra base hit and RBI. After the trip around the bases, Rizzo went back into the dugout and gave Bryant a huge bear hug.

Georgia Tech is now in consideration. They are also the Iowa of the ACC, their entire tournament resume basically 3 home wins against teams that had to have fallen asleep against them.

So, based on all those teams, here's the current at-large consideration field (83): ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami FL, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest American: Cincinnati, Houston, SMU America East: Vermont A-10: Dayton, Rhode Island, VCU Big East: Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, Xavier Big 12: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia B1G: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin Big South: UNC Asheville Colonial: Charleston, UNC Wilmington CUSA: Middle Tennessee Horizon: Valparaiso Ivy: Princeton MAC: Akron MAAC: Monmouth MVC: Illinois State, Wichita State MWC: Boise State, Nevada OVC: Belmont Pac-12: Arizona, California, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Utah SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt Southern: East Tennessee State Sun Belt: UT-Arlington WAC: New Mexico State WCC: BYU, Gonzaga, St. Mary's I feel like that's a pretty exhaustive list that includes everyone even remotely worth considering. If for some reason a team is missing that you think should be considered, just post about it. Given this, these are the guaranteed one-bid conferences (9): Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big West, MEAC, NEC, Patriot, Southland, Summit, SWAC

Current top 70 Sagarin: Rank Team 1 Gonzaga 2 West Virginia 3 North Carolina 4 Villanova 5 Kentucky 6 Louisville 7 Kansas 8 Florida 9 Virginia 10 Duke 11 Purdue 12 UCLA 13 Wichita State 14 Baylor 15 Oregon 16 Wisconsin 17 Florida State 18 Iowa State 19 Arizona 20 Cincinnati 21 Oklahoma State 22 Butler 23 SMU 24 Creighton 25 Notre Dame 26 Saint Mary's-Cal. 27 Michigan 28 Miami-Florida 29 South Carolina 30 Minnesota 31 Xavier-Ohio 32 Indiana 33 Marquette 34 Dayton 35 Texas Tech 36 Michigan State 37 Maryland 38 Northwestern 39 Wake Forest 40 Syracuse 41 Clemson 42 Arkansas 43 California 44 Kansas State 45 Virginia Tech 46 TCU 47 Houston 48 VCU(Va. Commonwealth) 49 Utah 50 Vanderbilt 51 Georgia 52 Seton Hall 53 Illinois State 54 Rhode Island 55 Georgetown 56 Ohio State 57 Providence 58 Oklahoma 59 Texas A&M 60 Southern California 61 Tennessee 62 Middle Tennessee 63 Nevada 64 Texas 65 Illinois 66 Alabama 67 BYU 68 Iowa 69 Pittsburgh 70 NC Wilmington

Current top 70 KenPom: RankTeam Conf ------------------------ 1 Gonzaga WCC 2 Villanova BE 3 North Carolina ACC 4 West Virginia B12 5 Florida SEC 6 Virginia ACC 7 Kentucky SEC 8 Louisville ACC 9 Kansas B12 10 Wichita St. MVC 11 Baylor B12 12 Purdue B10 13 UCLA P12 14 Saint Mary's WCC 15 Duke ACC 16 SMU Amer 17 Oregon P12 18 Florida St. ACC 19 Oklahoma St. B12 20 Butler BE 21 Wisconsin B10 22 Arizona P12 23 Iowa St. B12 24 Cincinnati Amer 25 Creighton BE 26 Notre Dame ACC 27 Michigan B10 28 South Carolina SEC 29 Miami FL ACC 30 Marquette BE 31 Wake Forest ACC 32 Dayton A10 33 Minnesota B10 34 Texas Tech B12 35 Kansas St. B12 36 Northwestern B10 37 Clemson ACC 38 Maryland B10 39 Houston Amer 40 Vanderbilt SEC 41 Virginia Tech ACC 42 Arkansas SEC 43 TCU B12 44 Illinois St. MVC 45 VCU A10 46 California P12 47 Middle Tennessee CUSA 48 Xavier BE 49 Rhode Island A10 50 Indiana B10 51 Michigan St. B10 52 Syracuse ACC 53 Georgia SEC 54 Utah P12 55 Providence BE 56 Texas A&M SEC 57 Seton Hall BE 58 Tennessee SEC 59 UNC Wilmington CAA 60 Nevada MWC 61 Georgetown BE 62 Princeton Ivy 63 Alabama SEC 64 Oklahoma B12 65 Illinois B10 66 Ohio St. B10 67 Vermont AE 68 E Tennessee St SC 69 USC P12 70 BYU WCC

Still playing really well at the right time. This is what Groce used to do at Ohio. Can't lose to Rutgers, though.

If only Illinois had shown up for a half against PSU.

Current Top 70 RPI: RPI Team Conference ------------------------------ 1 Villanova Big East 2 Kansas Big 12 3 Louisville Atlantic Coast 4 Oregon Pac-12 5 Florida Southeastern 6 Baylor Big 12 7 North Carolina Atlantic Coast 8 Kentucky Southeastern 9 Arizona Pac-12 10 Butler Big East 11 Gonzaga West Coast 12 Florida St. Atlantic Coast 13 Duke Atlantic Coast 14 UCLA Pac-12 15 Cincinnati AAC 16 Virginia Atlantic Coast 17 Minnesota Big Ten 18 St. Mary's (CA) West Coast 19 SMU AAC 20 Purdue Big Ten 21 Dayton Atlantic 10 22 Notre Dame Atlantic Coast 23 VCU Atlantic 10 24 Creighton Big East 25 West Virginia Big 12 26 Xavier Big East 27 Maryland Big Ten 28 South Carolina Southeastern 29 Oklahoma St. Big 12 30 Iowa St. Big 12 31 Middle Tenn. Conference USA 32 Arkansas Southeastern 33 Wisconsin Big Ten 34 Illinois St. Missouri Valley 35 Virginia Tech Atlantic Coast 36 UT Arlington Sun Belt 37 Miami (FL) Atlantic Coast 38 UNCW Colonial 39 USC Pac-12 40 Wichita St. Missouri Valley 41 Michigan St. Big Ten 42 Monmouth Metro Atlantic 43 Nevada Mountain West 44 Rhode Island Atlantic 10 45 Vermont America East 46 Wake Forest Atlantic Coast 47 Michigan Big Ten 48 Vanderbilt Southeastern 49 Seton Hall Big East 50 Northwestern Big Ten 51 California Pac-12 52 Houston AAC 53 Princeton Ivy League 54 Georgia Southeastern 55 Providence Big East 56 Illinois Big Ten 57 Belmont OVC 58 TCU Big 12 59 UNC Asheville Big South 60 Clemson Atlantic Coast 61 New Mexico St. Western Athletic 62 Ohio St. Big Ten 63 Valparaiso Horizon 64 Charleston Colonial 65 Akron Mid-American 66 Boise St. Mountain West 67 Tennessee Southeastern 67 Kansas St. Big 12 69 BYU West Coast 70 ETSU Southern

We'll do this again, but we'll do things slightly differently to keep it more active and less "spend 4 hours compiling lists every night". If you want to participate, post in the thread. Let's start by posting all the teams we think deserve consideration for an at-large bid. I'll start by posting the current top 70 RPI/KP/Sagarin teams, which should provide a good basis. By Monday, we'll have a big list of teams that we'll take for the next step.

I hope he's (name of some AA/AAA player who's never sniffed the majors) Michael Jordan?

Sure I'll throw something together.

Fun fact: Due to the intentional walk rule change, Addison Russell received the final 4-pitch intentional walk in MLB history.

#43: The Cubs Introduce the Dodgers to Defense Why on the list? - The Cubs played historic defense all season long, but in this series especially, the gap in defensive ability was really noticeable, where the Dodgers were giving runs away with defensive miscues while the Cubs kept taking runs and baserunners off the board with fantastic defense everywhere on the diamond. Even Fowler and Zobrist, the positions least thought of as defensive assets, contributed to the defensive mastery.

#44: Hendricks Nearly Shuts Down Dodgers in Game 2 Why on the list? - It's easy to forget with Kershaw dominating the Cubs on the other end, but Hendricks basically matched him in this game, giving up just 3 hits in 5 1/3 innings, and just the HR to Adrian Gonzalez on the low-outside pitch that should never have been a HR with basic luck. On the other side of the diamond, the Cubs basically had two near msisses that easily should have flipped the script in this game:

Jackie Robinson.

HUGE win for the USMNT program today, as the U20 team defeated Mexico 1-0 in the qualification round at the CONCACAF championships in Costa Rica. The USMNT began the tournament by losing 1-0 to 10 man Panama, wHicham forced them to win two straight just to make the qualification round. The top 4 teams overall qualify for the U20 World Cup, so the US still needed to beat either Mexico or El Salvador to be sure to qualify. They now play El Salvador in 4 days with a result of any kind putting them into the final. To give an idea how rare this result is, that was the first goal Mexico conceded all tournament, and their first CONCACAF loss since 2009. It's the first US U20 victory over Mexico in 31 years.

Haha, there is a bracket projection that has Illinois as the last team in, playing Wichita State in the first four. Illinois could lose that match up by 40.

Conference tournaments start tonight.

It's going to be weird when Illinois somehow finishes above northwestern in the B1G.

By what measure?