Bracketology 1/22/11

It's been a little over 10 days since my first bracketology, so I figured I'd re-evaluate some teams as well as make changes based on results. If I have time, I'll put up the bracket form in addition to the seed list. But I think I'll opt for some analysis instead today. Seed list first (remember the even lines are read right to left):

1 Syracuse (East), Kentucky (South), Kansas (Midwest), Duke (West)
2 Ohio State, Baylor, North Carolina, Missouri
3 Michigan State, UNLV, Georgetown, Connecticut
4 Vanderbilt, Marquette, Creighton, Murray State
5 Michigan, Florida, Indiana, West Virginia
6 Virginia, Illinois, Kansas State, San Diego State
7 Mississippi State, Gonzaga, Seton Hall, Wisconsin
8 Dayton, Wichita State, Louisville, Saint Mary’s
9 Temple, Florida State, Alabama, Harvard
10 New Mexico, Cincinnati, Xavier, Purdue
11 California, Memphis, Stanford, Southern Miss
12 Saint Louis vs. Northwestern, Minnesota vs. BYU, Marshall, North Carolina State
13 Belmont, Middle Tennessee, Iona, Oral Roberts
14 Long Beach State, Davidson, Akron, UW-Milwaukee
15 Nevada, UT-Arlington, George Mason, Weber State
16 Norfolk State vs. Mississippi Valley State,  LIU-Brooklyn vs. Stony Brook UNC-Asheville, Bucknell

Last 4 in
Saint Louis
BYU
Minnesota

Northwestern


First 4 out
Northwestern
Iowa State
Oregon
Northern Iowa

Next 4 out
LSU
Oklahoma
Arizona
UCF

Bids by conference:

Big 10: 9 (3 barely in, 0 almost in)
Big East: 8 (1 barely in, 0 almost in)
ACC: 5 (1 barely in, 0 almost in)
SEC: 5 (0 barely in, 1 barely out)
Big 12: 4 (0 barely in, 3 barely out)
Atlantic 10: 4 (2 barely in, 0 barely out)
Conference USA: 3 (3 barely in, 1 barely out)
West Coast: 3 (1 barely in, 0 barely out)
Mountain West: 3 (1 barely in, 1 barely out)
Missouri Valley: 2 (0 barely in, 1 barely out)
Pac-12: 2 (2 barely in, 2 barely out)

One of the things I noticed while making my bracket in the car this morning was the flurry of activity around lines 9 through 11. I feel like I moved Xavier around maybe 10 times, it was pretty ridiculous. The Conference USA tournament could be very interesting this year as they could have 0 locks or near-locks and 4 bubble teams heading into the tournament. New this post is the barely in category (seeds 10-12) and the barely out category (first 8 out). The Big 12 has 3 of the top 8 teams (Missouri, Baylor and Kansas) and 3 of the first 8 out (Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa State). Shockingly 10 out of the 37 at-large bids are currently going to mid-majors.

That's all for now, see you guys later.