Trouble Spots in the Friday Bracketology Update
- Final 2 seeds: Illinois, Michigan State, Iowa State all with cases right now.
- Final 3 seeds: Purdue vs. Gonzaga vs. Alabama for the final spot; Moved Alabama down, but don’t feel great about it.
- Final 4 seed. Texas Tech, Arkansas, Vanderbilt all with cases. Vandy for now.
- Final 5 seed: UNC vs. Wisconsin vs. Tennessee.
- Final 6 seed: Louisville vs. Miami vs. Kentucky.
- The 7 line – I’ m not very happy with placement of teams. Will be evaluating tomorrow.
- Final 8 spot: Utah State vs. Ohio State.
- Villanova – I want to see metric updates and will land on where to put them. Just 1 decent win gives me a lot of pause, but resume metrics are likely good enough to keep them as a single digit seed.
- 10 line order – will fully re-evaluate this area once full metric updates today.
- 11 seeds: Miami is in danger of falling to the first 4. SMU is on life support, as is Texas. VCU cannot afford a loss. Missouri feels relatively safe.
- I have moved Akron in to make the first bid thief official. That eliminated a spot, and Auburn fell out with their loss today.
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Friday promises to bring elite matchups throughout!
Big Ten:
Ohio State vs. Michigan pits bitter rivals together again. This is a huge matchup. Michigan could jump Duke if they win the conference title and Duke loses. OSU is looking to continue climbing up! Wisconsin and Illinois play – Illinois is a 3 with a loss, 2 with a win. Wisconsin – 6. Purdue and Nebraska will tip off at 6:30 in a key battle. Winner is ahead on the 3 line. Loser might drop a spot or two behind. Both could end up as 4’s. UCLA and Michigan State close the night, MSU will be favored, but this should be fun!
ACC:
Semi-Final Friday! Miami and UVA at 7, and then Clemson/Duke at 9:30. Miami is a 7, could theoretically move to a 6. Virginia is a 4. UVA will be favored, but this will be really fun to watch! Duke should be favored pretty heavily over Clemson, but I expect this to be close as well. Duke just isn’t healthy. Duke – 1 overall currently. Clemson – 7.
Big East
Semi-Final Friday at the Garden, is there anything better? Seton Hall and St. John’s start things off with SJU being favored. Seton Hall has to win the tournament to get in. SJU is a 5/6 seed. Georgetown and UConn tip off in the late game, and UConn will be favored heavily. But can the Hoyas continue their run?!
SEC
Quarterfinal matchups feature the big dogs. Kentucky and Florida start things off, with Florida is fighting for the final 1, Kentucky is fighting for a 6. Tennessee and Vanderbilt will play….. again, with Vandy on the 4 line, this game would likely get them pretty securely into the top 16 on Sunday. Ole Miss and Alabama face off at 7:00. Ole Miss, it’s been fun, but today is another step up. I’m not sure they can keep up. Alabama is a 3/4. Oklahoma and Arkansas close the night out. Sooner fans are begging the committee to actually value all of the results. Arkansas is a solid 5 seed right now.
MWC
The MWC semi-final matchups feature Nevada and Utah State followed by New Mexico and San Diego State. Both matchups will be great, with Nevada looking to steal a bid. If Utah State were to lose, we would confirm a bid thief. UNM & SDSU is a massive bubble battle. There is a very good chance that the winner moves in.
A-10
SLU and VCU both get going in games they should win. SLU is in a great spot, but VCU has to win these next 2. Matchups: George Washington vs. Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure vs. Dayton, Duquesne vs. VCU, and Davidson vs. Saint Josephs. SLU → 8. VCU → last 4 in.
American
The second set of quarterfinals are friday at 1 and then 3:30. Charlotte and UAB will face off, followed by North Texas and Tulsa! Expect these to be really fun matchups!
Big West
Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine battle at 9:00, follwowed by Cal State Fullerton and Hawaii. These should be great games!
CUSA
Semi-finals are here! No Liberty, no problem! Missouri State and LA Tech tip first, followed by Kennesaw State and Sam Houston. Missouri State and Kennesaw State would be wild as they were a combined 18-22 in conference play this year!
MAC
The MAC Semi-Finals feature upset minded UMass vs. Toledo, and then Kent State vs. Akron. The latter game will be crazy high scoring, but both should be good matchups. Akron is favored heavily to win this.
MEAC
The MEAC semi-finals are this evening, featuring SC State vs. Howard, followed by Delaware State and NC Central. Howard is heavily favored to come out of this league!
The SWAC
Semi-finals are this afternoon at 2:00, and then at 8:30. Not sure why they’re spaced like that, but both games should be extremely close! The winner of Southern and Florida A&M is the favorite, but Prairie View A&M and Alabama A&M are looking to play spoiler!
The WAC
Friday brings Utah Valley and Cal Baptist into the mix. Utah Valley is heavily favored, but Cal Baptist is right there. Game 1: UT Arlington vs. Utah Valley, game 2: Utah Tech vs. Cal Baptist. Both will be fun!
