Day 1 of the Power Four conference tournaments didn’t bring many changes to the top of the bracket, but it drastically shook up the bubble. A lot of teams that needed wins to keep their tournament dreams alive bowed out early. Thursday, the heavy hitters will start playing, and we’ll see a lot more movement in the bracket.
Several programs’ bubbles were burst on Wednesday. Stanford, Mississippi State and Nebraska all fell due to their losses. Stanford and Mississippi State both fell out of the tournament after losing their opening game. Nebraska could have fallen out, but since so many other bubble teams lost, they stay in. The Cornhuskers will be hoping and praying that no leagues steal bids between now and Selection Sunday.
The beneficiaries of two bubble teams losing are Colorado and Fairfield. The Buffaloes open their Big 12 tournament on Thursday and will need to grab a win or two to stay in the field. The Stags tied for first in the MAAC, but due to the tiebreakers, they are the No. 2 seed in their conference tournament. Winning it outright will take all the stress out of Selection Sunday for Fairfield.
Thursday games with greatest bracket impacts
- Clemson vs Virginia
- BYU vs Utah
- Kansas vs Colorado
- Iowa State vs Arizona State
- Michigan State vs Illinois
- Washington vs USC
- Cal Baptist vs Abilene Christian
Bracketology methodology
Here are some basic rules that help influence my bracket:
- The top four seed lines in each region shall be from different conferences unless a conference has more than four teams in the top 16 (making this rule impossible to follow, as is the case with the SEC and Big Ten in my bracket).
- Teams from the same conference shall not be projected to meet until the Elite Eight if they met three times during the regular season, or the Sweet 16 if they met twice. Because we don’t know what will happen in conference tournaments, I am assuming every conference team will face each other one more time than what is on their schedule. I was able to keep conference teams apart until the Elite Eight.
- In order to comply with bracket rules, it is acceptable to move a team up or down one seed line. I did not have to do that with this bracket.
Bracket breakdown
Multi-bid conferences
- Big Ten: 12
- SEC: 10
- ACC: 9
- Big 12: 7
- Big East: 2
- Ivy League: 2
- MAAC: 2
Last four in:
- Virginia
- Colorado
- Fairfield
- Nebraska
First four out:
- Utah
- Richmond
- Arizona State
- South Dakota State
Next four out:
- Mississippi State
- Stanford
- Kansas
- BYU
Next update: March 6th
