2019 is here and this marks my eighth year doing Bracketology. I am ready to dig into the first full execise of selecting, seeding and building a bracket that is based on what we know at this point of the College Basketball season. Bracketology can be defined as the art and logistics of predicting the teams that will be selected in the annual NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and where the games will be played. Here is a quick review on the process for anyone new to the website.
How the Teams are Selected.
Basics:
32 Auto Bids, 36 At-Large Teams
Projected Auto Bid Tiebreakers:
I love to add different variables to my updates in order to keep the bracketing pricnciples sharp in my mind. In order to do that, I have a slightly different way of selecting teams that represent each Conference’s Auto Bid. Here is a snapshot
1) Conference Leader in the Loss column
2) In the event of a head to head tie for 1st: H2H winner gets the bid; if the tied teams haven’t played each other, then I revert to the preseason pick; if neither apply, then I go to the resumes and make a selection as if they are At Large teams.
3) In the event of a multiple team tie for 1st: H2H record (all teams must have faced each other); if the tied teams haven’t all played each other, then I revert to the preseason pick; if neither apply, then I go to the resumes and make a selection as if they are At Large teams.
Here’s an example for today:
MWC has two teams with zero losses, Boise State and UNLV.
Have not met Head to Head or were preseason picks to win the league
UNLV gets the projected bid for having a better resume thus far.
Auto Bids are then complete, and the 36 At Large teams are then needed next. I work off of a large board with about 60-75 At Large candidates at any given time. As the season goes on, the list gets smaller. From there I simply follow all of the NCAA Principles and Procedures to make the selections. I pride my work on trying to make arguments good and bad for each team, and strive to end up with the common sense pecking order.
Here is our First Seed List of 2019:
