Christmas Time

It’s Christmas in March as today is Selection Sunday.

Let’s start out with the auto-bids handed out yesterday

SWAC – Arkansas – Peanut Butter – welcome to the play out game, thanks for coming

America East – Vermont beat Boston early and probably grab the lowest 15 seed

MEAC – Todd Bozeman leads Morgan State to the MEAC title and probably a date with K-state. They can hang for a bit but will ultimately get crushed

Big West – UC Santa Barbara grabs the bid and a potential 14 seed

MAC – The biggest upset of the day as Ohio wins. Surprisingly, even through they were an 7 seed in the MAC tournament their RPI is a respectable 94.

Southland – Samuel Houston Sr. beats Steve Austin for a possible 13/14 bid

WAC – The Aggies upset the Aggies to grab a bid and send bubble teams running. Is the WAC a 2 bid conference now?

Mountain West – thankfully we didn’t get to watch this 55-45 mess. San Diego State finishes the job and goes from last 4 out to an RPI of 18 in 3 days.

C-USA – There goes the UTEP winning streak and in comes Houston, who I had projected getting in here during my preseason ramblings. Funny how that worked.

Pac-10 – Washington secures a bid and the Pac-10 is a two bid conference. Read that again because a lot of bracketologists are saying California is not safe. I am telling you a conference title and a top 20 RPI is going to be enough.

Big East – West Virginia holds off Georgetown and are now in line for a #1 seed. Is it Duke’s to lose today or do they now grab Syracuse’s?

Big 12 – Kansas State better hope they don’t run into Kansas down the road again.

Below is the bracket as of this morning. There is potential for more changes as I still have Mississippi State and Minnesota out. Depending on how they look will depend on whether I put them in or if they win, have to put them in. The bubble teams that are sweating the most are Illinois and Virginia Tech. I also think there is another group that also should be somewhat worried due to their early tourney exist or last week fadings. That group includes Wake Forest, Missouri, Louisville, UTEP, and Utah State. I’ll be crunching through some numbers and retain the right to move things around a bit more but for now, this is what I got for you.

1 seed vs 16 seed
Kansas - (B12) vs Arkansas-PB - (SWAC)/Winthorp (BigSouth)
Kentucky - (SEC) vs LeHigh (Patriot)
Syracuse vs Robert Morris - (NEC)
Duke - (ACC) vs E. Tennessee State - (Asun)
2 seed vs 15 seed
West Virginia - (Beast) vs Vermont - (Aeast)
Ohio State - (Big10) vs North Texas - (Sbelt)
Kansas State vs Morgan State - (MEAC)
Villanova vs Montana - (Big Sky)
3 seed vs 14 seed
New Mexico vs UC-Santa Barbara - (Big West)
Georgetown vs Ohio - (MAC)
Temple - (A10) vs Wofford - (SoCon)
Pittsburgh vs Houston - (CUSA)
4 seed vs 13 seed
Purdue vs Sam Houston St - (Southland)
Tennessee vs Murray State - (OVC)
Vanderbilt vs Oakland - (Summit)
Wisconsin vs New Mexico State (WAC)
5 seed vs 12 seed
Baylor vs Washington - (Pac10)
Maryland vs Illinois
Butler - (Horizon) vs Wake Forest
Richmond vs Virginia Tech
6 seed vs 11 seed
Michigan State vs Cornell - (Ivy)
BYU vs California
Texas A&M vs Siena - (MAAC)
Gonzaga vs UNLV
7 seed vs 10 seed
Northern Iowa - (MVC) vs Missouri
Xavier vs Louisville
Marquette vs Utah State
Georgia Tech vs UTEP
8 seed vs 9 seed
Florida State vs Oklahoma State
Notre Dame vs San Diego State - (Mwest)
Old Dominion - (CAA) vs Texas
Clemson vs St. Mary's - (WCC)

Last Four Out
Mississippi State
Minnesota
Florida
Mississippi

Next Four Out
Rhode Island
Arizona State
Wichita State
Seton Hall

Also Considered
Memphis