bukie

Albany just won the America East championship, so they are in for sure. Same for Memphis in the C-USA.

Top 50 is generally teams that will be in the tournament. Granted, not all teams in the tournament are equal, but showing the ability to win against the teams that will be in the tournament is helpful to determine whether or not they are worth being in there.

Ok, it's Saturday morning, and here's our field of 65: Auto bids (clinched in bold) (31): Albany - AMERICA EAST Duke - ACC Belmont - ATLANTIC SUN St. Joseph's - ATLANTIC 10 Pittsburgh - BIG EAST Montana - BIG SKY Winthrop - BIG SOUTH Ohio State - BIG TEN Texas - BIG 12 Pacific - BIG WEST UNC Wilmington - COLONIAL Memphis - CONFERENCE USA Wisconsin Milwaukee - HORIZON LEAGUE Pennsylvania - IVY LEAGUE Iona - METRO ATLANTIC Kent State - MID-AMERICAN Oral Roberts - MID-CONTINENT Delaware State - MID-EASTERN Southern Illinois - MISSOURI VALLEY San Diego State - MOUNTAIN WEST Monmouth - NORTHEAST Murray State - OHIO VALLEY UCLA - PAC-10 Bucknell - PATRIOT LSU - SEC Davidson - SOUTHERN Northwestern State - SOUTHLAND Southern - SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC South Alabama - SUN BELT Gonzaga - WEST COAST Nevada - WESTERN ATHLETIC At-large bids (34): Boston College Connecticut Florida George Washington Georgetown Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Marquette Michigan State North Carolina North Carolina State Oklahoma Tennessee Villanova Washington West Virginia Wisconsin and... (in vote order from last night) Northern Iowa Wichita State Syracuse Arizona Kentucky Bradley UAB Arkansas Missouri State George Mason California Alabama Hofstra Texas A&M Cincinnati Last 4 out: Creighton Seton Hall Michigan Air Force STEP 3: Rank the 65 teams from 1-65, to work with seeding. Please get them to me by Sunday (tomorrow) at noon CST. Note: At-large bids will be taken away if Wake Forest wins the ACC tournament, if Utah State wins the WAC, if Nebraska wins the Big 12, or if South Carolina wins the SEC.

No problemo, it's all volunteer work. :)

Got 2 more, I'll wait till tomorrow morning to see if I can get the last 3. Last step, due Sunday by noon CST, is a seeding of the 65 teams in the field from 1-65. I'll get the teams in the field tomorrow (aside from any auto bids that haven't been clinched yet).

Wouldn't be overly concerned about it, really. Michigan State wanted it tonight a lot more, and there isn't a ton of difference between the two teams. Illinois is likely a 3 seed on Sunday, which is fine.

I only have 4 submissions so far for bubble rankings. Anyone else?

but luckily they are fairing a touch better from 3 point land Might as well take the freebies from behind the 3-point line.

Tennessee never really in the game vs. South Carolina, falling at the end 79-71. Wake Forest throttling NC State.

One more thing to put some ridiculousness to rest that I've seen on almost every major sports site this week. Team A vs. Team B Team A: RPI: 19 Record: 20-8 Records vs. Top 50: 4-8 Record vs. 51-325: 16-0 Record in Last 10: 8-2 Road/Neutral Record: 8-6 Lost in conference tourney quarters Team B: RPI: 41 Record: 21-8 Record vs. Top 50: 4-5 Record vs. 51-325: 17-3 Record in Last 10: 6-4 Road/Neutral Record: 6-5 Plays in conference tourney quarters today. Right now we have Team A on the bubble (and every other publication has them as one of the last teams in or out), and Team B is considered a lock everywhere. 99% of this has to do with the conference they play in, and the popular concept that they "gamed" the RPI (by actually playing tough teams non-conference away from home...*gasp*). So, please, vote in team A.

Albany, Delaware State, Kent State, Pacific, and Southern at least all won their conferences for the regular season. Of those, Pacific, Kent State, and Albany have the best profiles for consideration.

I'd add Temple to the list of teams that really shouldn't be considered for an at-large bid. Yes, they beat GW, to climb 4 games over .500. And they have seven losses to teams in the RPI 100-200. I'll also make a note that every single Missouri Valley team except Creighton ended up one vote shy of being "in". They all have such similar profiles, it's difficult to choose which ones deserve and which ones don't. I think they should all be in, especially before a Florida State, or a Cal.

Ok, results tabulated. I received 9 entries from the committee of: bukie Transmogrified Tiger SouthSideRyan Mark_R rawaction CaliforniaRaisin hawkeyecub Flames24Rulz RynoRules The following 27 teams are IN: Boston College Connecticut Duke Florida George Washington Georgetown Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas LSU Marquette Memphis Michigan State Nevada North Carolina North Carolina State Ohio State Oklahoma Pittsburgh Tennessee Texas UCLA Villanova Washington West Virginia Wisconsin ...meaning at least 7 of the 9 participants voted for the above teams. The following 34 teams will be involved in bubble discussions for the remainder of the spots: Air Force Alabama Albany Arizona Arkansas Bradley Bucknell California Charlotte Cincinnati Colorado Creighton Delaware State Florida State George Mason Hofstra Houston Kent State Kentucky Louisville Maryland Michigan Missouri State Northern Iowa Northwestern State Pacific San Diego State Seton Hall Southern Syracuse Temple Texas A&M UAB Wichita State ...meaning at least one person, but fewer than 7, voted for the above teams. I'll post the next step soon, as I figure out exactly how many spots are still available. EDIT: There are still 14 slots available, given automatic bids and at-larges already taken away (under assumption that highest RPI team will win each remaining conf tournament). So, step 2: Rank the remaining 34 bubble teams from 1 to 34. The aggregate scores of the remaining teams will denote who will be in the field for now, and who will be on the outside looking in. Also, feel free to open discussion on the teams we are ranking for tomorrow. If everyone can get them in before Friday at 8pm CST, we can get to ranking the teams in the field. The ranking for tomorrow doesn't necessarily mean these teams are at the bottom of the field.

I think Michigan and Syracuse's recent play mirror each other's, aside from today (which admittedly favors Syracuse). Their overall numbers vs. the RPI are similar, but Michigan has much better efficiency numbers (which perhaps I take more stock in than others). I am of the opinion based on efficiency numbers that Michigan looks good more often than Syracuse does, and looks bad less often than Syracuse does. However, today is likely fresh in the mind of the committee. As for Florida State, they have 1 good win all year, and have made a habit of beating up on bad teams while losing close to good teams. If beating Duke is grounds for making the tournament (which I wouldn't put past the committee, citing past year's invites), then they are in. If having the numbers is grounds, they are further out than Albany.

Both are out if it were up to me. Michigan's done, without my say-so. FSU is probably one of the last teams in at best. Michigan's resume is much better than Syracuse's, and especially FSU's. Even with today's loss. Main question will be what sticks in the minds of the committee tonight and tomorrow while they pick the field.

Michigan falls to Minnesota. Very tenuous bubble they have. Florida State falls in the ACC first round to last-place Wake Forest. So much for the good will from the Duke win (their only good win of the year).

Yes, and then 10 additional schools you think should get consideration.

Well, cheer up! They face Ohio State tomorrow!

I'm not so sure Syracuse doesn't still have to win the Big East tournament to get in. Even with today's win, their resume is well below that of several mid-major teams. The fact that they play so many non-conference games at home may really hurt them this year.

Was UNC ranked #1 going into the tournament last year, or did Illinois hang onto #1 even after losing at Ohio State? Either way, I don't think any team this year is as clear a favorite as those two were last year.

Connecticut taking the rest of the weekend off to prepare for the tournament they care more about, falling to Syracuse 86-84 in OT.

Updated to reflect that GW can't win the A-10's bid. Bubble teams everywhere hoping for the chance to pop GW one in the tourney. Also, I have all results tabulated for the 7 entries I've received so far (including mine...except I forgot Pitt, so I fudged mine a touch). Some interesting results, and I think this is going to turn out well.

Say goodbye to an extra at-large bid. GW just lost in the quarters of the A-10+ tournament, by 15, to Temple. Nobody else from that conference was even mentioned in at-large consideration.

If a Sunday final includes a team not expected to be in the field, then the committee has multiple scenarios (see 1999 tournament, Illinois). If every team involved Sunday is already planned into the field, the Sunday games make minimal difference. The only time I remember a team seemingly skyrocketing from a conference tournament performance was Maryland a couple years back, where they went from on the bubble to a 4 seed (which turned out to be unreasonably high, since they almost lost in the first round and did get bumped in the second). EDIT: Part of the reason the seeding doesn't change much is because of the pod system. Once the committee has teams arranged by pod, so that higher seeds don't get screwed out of their location, then to move even 2 teams around could offset entire brackets. Imagine even a scenario where an Ohio State-Illinois Sunday matchup were to decide which was a one seed and which was a 2 seed. However, Illinois had been slated to go to the Auburn Hills pod as a 2 seed, and Ohio State had been slated to go to the Dayton pod as a 1 seed. If Illinois won, then, what do you do? If you move Illinois to a 1 seed and moved them to Dayton with OSU to Auburn Hills, there might be a geographical disadvantage for Illinois/OSU that there wasn't in the previous pod setup. If you kept them in their pods and just put them against the other teams, there might also be geographical disadvantages (say Kent State won the MAC tournament and was slated to be in OSU's pod at Dayton as a 9 seed, but getting moved to Auburn Hills in Illinois' pod puts them closer than Illinois). There are just too many variables present with the pod system to have a game 20 minutes before the presentation affecting something as trivial as seeding.

Ok, first post updated with every automatic bid thus far. If you want to participate, please get me your list of 34 teams by 8pm CST tonight, since it'll take me a while to process the info for the next step. The next step will be filtering teams in and out of the field (depending on how many extra teams/slots we have at the end of the first step) and ranking the teams that we have put in to the field.