Saturday Bracketology 1/25/2020

Austin Walther January 25, 2020 8:11 am

This is the third Saturday Bracketology in a row. I better keep up with it since I tell everyone on Twitter that updates come on Saturday mornings. A shortened version will be added to make this twice a week soon.

We have our first potential bid stealer. Northern Iowa was holding down the automatic bid in the Missouri Valley for a while. Then they lost to Southern Illinois for their second league loss. Loyola-Chicago moves in as the only one-loss team in the MVC. Now the Panthers are considered an at-large contender and actually have a pretty nice resume.

Secondly, Liberty lost to North Florida. Both teams now have a 7-1 record in the Atlantic Sun. Then I had a decision to make. How am I going to do tiebreakers? Before conference play it was overall record and then NET ranking. What about for conference play? I don’t like the idea of head-to-head because that is not considered when picking at-large teams. It also doesn’t matter because Liberty and North Florida could end the season tied with two losses, never play each other in the A-Sun Tournament and the Flames could still get the automatic bid. So I had to go back and make sure if there was a tie, the team with the best NET was getting in. Liberty, you’re safe. Welcome North Texas and Austin Peay. Sorry Western Kentucky and Murray State.

On a side note, two teams with the name Austin in it are in the field.

The four #1 seeds you’re seeing right now could honestly hold onto them for a while. I still have 12 Big Ten teams in. Minnesota is moving up. Michigan is moving down. Purdue is barely in. I’m not about to say whether or not beating Wisconsin to avoid a home loss to go to 10-10 is what kept them in, but it certainly helped quite a bit. And yes, I’m joining the bandwagon of three A-10 teams in the field.

As always, enjoy a wonderful Saturday of hoops and make sure you check out how we compare to everyone else on the Bracket Matrix.

South

  1. Baylor
  2. Robert Morris/Norfolk State

  3. Arkansas

  4. NC State

  5. Creighton

  6. Akron

  7. Maryland

  8. New Mexico State

  9. Rutgers

  10. VCU/USC

  11. Villanova

  12. William & Mary

  13. Florida

  14. Michigan

  15. Florida State

  16. Austin Peay

Midwest

  1. Kansas

  2. Monmouth/Prairie View A&M

  3. BYU

  4. Indiana

  5. Colorado

  6. Yale

  7. Butler

  8. Stephen F. Austin

  9. Arizona

  10. Alabama

  11. Michigan State

  12. Winthrop

  13. Illinois

  14. Memphis

  15. Louisville

  16. Little Rock

West

  1. Gonzaga

  2. South Dakota State

  3. Penn State

  4. Texas Tech

  5. Iowa

  6. Liberty

  7. Auburn

  8. Vermont

  9. Kentucky
    11.Purdue/Rhode Island

  10. Seton Hall

  11. Colgate (Q&A with viral mascot)

  12. Stanford

  13. Minnesota

  14. West Virginia

  15. UC Irvine

East

  1. San Diego State

  2. Montana

  3. Houston

  4. Wisconsin

  5. LSU

  6. East Tennessee State

  7. Oregon

  8. North Texas

  9. Marquette

  10. Oklahoma

  11. Dayton

  12. Loyola-Chicago

  13. Wichita State

  14. Ohio State

  15. Duke

  16. Wright State

Last four byes

Minnesota
Michigan
Oklahoma
Alabama

Last four in

VCU
Purdue
USC
Rhode Island

First four out

Washington
Virginia Tech
Mississippi State
Georgetown

Next four out

Tennessee
Northern Iowa
Saint Mary’s
Virginia

Photo courtesy of Seminoles.com