Bracketology 1/18/16

1) Remember that all seed lines are read left to right.

2) Teams that are currently projected as auto-bids are listed in the bubble section at the bottom with respect to where they would be without their auto-bid.

3) I'm changing how I award auto-bids before the conference tournament. Instead of choosing the KenPom leader from each conference, I'll follow Lunardi's lead and go with the conference leader, with ties broken by RPI.

4) All RPI data used for this comes from Warren Nolan. If you're as much of a college basketball geek as I am, it should be one of your bookmarks along with KenPom and the Bracket Matrix. This leads to some funky teams being in the bracket (such as VCU and Memphis) but it becomes irrelevant by Selection Sunday.

5) Only 7 conferences have at-large bids in this bracket, possibly the lowest number I've ever had in one of my brackets. I'm interested to see how much the Pac-12 cannibalizes itself and whether they can get a majority of their teams into the tournament.

1: Oklahoma, Xavier, Villanova, Kansas

2: North Carolina, Iowa, Texas A&M, Michigan State

3: Miami (FL), West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland

4: Iowa State, Oregon, Duke, Kentucky

5: USC, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Arizona

6: Utah, South Carolina, Purdue, Providence

7: Baylor, Texas Tech, Louisville, Texas

8: Florida, Colorado, Butler, Indiana

9: Notre Dame, Michigan, California, Oregon State

10: Wichita State, Seton Hall, St. Joseph's, St. Mary's

11: Valparaiso, (Stanford/George Washington), (UCLA/Alabama), Monmouth

12: Chattanooga, IPFW, Arkansas-LR, San Diego State

13: VCU, Stony Brook, Princeton, Hawaii

14: James Madison, UAB, Northern Illinois, Memphis

15: Montana, North Florida, UNC-Asheville, CSU Bakersfield

16: Navy, Tennessee State, (Hampton/Texas Southern), (Mount Saint Mary's/Houston Baptist)

First Four Out: Gonzaga, Washington, Clemson, Monmouth

Next Four Out: Connecticut, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Arkansas-LR

Also Considered: Mississippi, Boise State, Vanderbilt, VCU, Marquette, Florida State, Davidson, St. Bonaventure, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, UT-Arlington, Ohio State, Tulsa, Auburn, Wisconsin, LSU, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Creighton, BYU

Bids by Conference:

Pac-12: 9/12

Big 12: 7/10

ACC: 7/14

Big Ten: 6/14

Big East: 5/8

SEC: 5/14

Atlantic 10: 4/14