It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. In this episode, host Jackie Powell of The Next is joined by Her Hoop Stats‘ resident bracketologist, Megan Gauer, to talk all things Bracketology ahead of Sunday’s bracket reveal show that will air on ESPN beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Jackie and Megan discuss the importance of bracketology coverage in women’s basketball and what drew Megan to it in the first place, before moving into Megan’s process when creating bracket updates. They also discuss whether we may see a two-bid Ivy League, and if there are any surprises that we could see on Selection Sunday. Then, they wrap up with some rapid-fire predictions.
Megan dives into how she got into the world of being a bracketologist:
I’ve always been a data person … [and] there’s just so much data that goes into bracketology. So I think that’s why I like it and find it interesting. I got into it … during COVID, when we were all locked up at home and couldn’t do anything. Joe Lunardi, who is ESPN’s men’s bracketologist, just put on a summer class that kind of talked through his process, how like he goes about doing it … all the rules. So I took that class during COVID, kind of got into it from there, and then this is the first season I’ve done kind of the full bracket. I [had] always focused on the top 16. There’s just not a ton of people doing this on the one women’s side, so there was a need for more.
Megan on whether or not a two-bid Ivy League is possible for Princeton and another team, with Columbia currently listed outside the bubble as an at-large:
It can still happen… Columbia I don’t think has the resume to get in as an at-large, but they can still win the conference tournament. And regardless of what happens this weekend, Princeton is getting in as an at-large team. Their resume is solidly putting them in the field. So we can get a two-bid Ivy, just someone other than the Princeton needs to win the conference tournament this weekend for that to happen.
To stay up to date with every episode of the podcast, subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more of our team’s coverage of bracketology, click here! For the rest of our NCAA coverage, click here! You can also check in on Megan’s latest bracket here.