Crazy Sports Dude Bracketology 1/18 – What is going on with the Pac-12?

The Most Accurate Bracketology of the 2017-18 Season Returns!

Right now, the Pac-12 has three teams in the field in my bracketology: Washington, Arizona, and Arizona State, but all three fall on the 11 line, the lowest line before you get into one-bid league auto bid. Its probably the poorest performance by a power six conference in recent history, as the conference has no teams in the top 40 in KenPom, and their “best” team by most computer metrics, Oregon, has nothing close to an at-large resume right now, with home losses to Oregon State, UCLA, and Texas Southern (ouch). They did pick up a win on the road against Arizona yesterday, 59-54, but I would be surprised if they were able to do the same when they travel to Tempe on Saturday to take on the Sun Devils.

As for the teams that currently are (barely) in the territory of receiving an at-large bid: Washington, Arizona, and Arizona State, it is hard to imagine them all staying there, because at some point they’ll have to play each other. All four would be in my last four teams in right now, although Washington technically avoids that label by way of being the projected auto-bid winner from the conference. If those three teams can all win like 12 or 13 games in conference, they might all get in, but with a league like the Pac-12 where the top-team and the average team are separated by less than 40 spots in the KenPom rankings, I see a lot of the “beating up on each other” coming into play, and if we get to March and say, UCLA catches fire in the Pac-12 tournament, it will be a long, hard discussion as to whether or not the Pac-12 gets more than that one team in, something that has never happened to a power six conference since the expansion of the tournament.

S-Curve

GREEN – Moved up one or more seed line
RED – Moved down one or more seed line
BLUE – New to bracket
Italicized – Team will play in First Four play-in game

Changes are from: 1/11

Note: The furthest left team is considered to be the highest ranked on the seed line and the furthest right is considered to be the lowest ranked

1 Seeds: Virginia, Michigan, Duke, Tennessee
2 Seeds: Kansas, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Texas Tech
3 Seeds: Nevada, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
4 Seeds: Houston, Marquette, Kentucky, Auburn
5 Seeds: Maryland, Buffalo, Florida State, Villanova
6 Seeds: Nebraska, Iowa State, LSU, Louisville
7 Seeds: Mississippi State, NC State, Purdue, Indiana
8 Seeds: Iowa, TCU, Ole Miss, Wisconsin
9 Seeds: Cincinnati, St. John’s, Ohio State, Seton Hall
10 Seeds: Kansas State, Minnesota, Syracuse, Temple
11 Seeds: UCF, WashingtonTexasArizonaArizona StateAlabama
12 Seeds: VCU, Wofford, Lipscomb, Murray State
13 Seeds: Hofstra, Vermont, North Texas, Yale
14 Seeds: Georgia State, New Mexico State, UC Irvine, Loyola-Chicago
15 Seeds: Radford, Northern Kentucky, South Dakota State, Montana
16 Seeds: Lehigh, Abilene Christian, RiderTexas SouthernWagnerNorfolk State

Dropped Out: Florida, Butler, North Carolina A&T

Bubble Watch

Avoiding Dayton

Minnesota
Syracuse
Temple
UCF

Last Four In

Texas
Arizona
Arizona State
Alabama

First Four Out

Butler
San Francisco
St. Louis
Florida

Next Four Out

Utah State
Creighton
Davidson
Clemson

By Conference

Big Ten – 10 Bids (71% of the conference)
Big 12 – 7 Bids (70%)
ACC – 8 Bids (57%)
SEC – 7 Bids (50%)
Big East – 4 Bids (40%)
American – 4 Bids (33%)
Pac-12 – 3 Bids (25%)

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