1 Seed Contenders
To me it is clear that Kansas and Duke are worthy of the top two spots. But from there, it gets interesting between Baylor, SDSU, Gonzaga, and Butler. With Baylor’s victory in Lubbock over Texas Tech earlier this week, it is enough to convince me that they belong. Only one team won in Lubbock last season (Iowa State), clearly a very hard thing to accomplish. For the fourth #1 seed I am going with Gonzaga reluctantly. The Zags have showed weakness lately and the win over UNC continues to lose value and their lone loss to Michigan (by 18) contunues to look less elite. You could make a really strong argument for San Diego State here, and I am higher than most on the Aztec body of work.
2nd Tier
Smaller group of squads fit this criteria to date. The Auburn Tigers may be undefeated. but their schedule hasn’t afforded them any elite win opportunites at this point. Not to worry Tiger fans, those elite opportunities are coming. The Florida State Seminoles aren’t getting the love in the rankings yet, but they are building an excellent resume with wins at Louisville, at Florida, at Wake, neutral wins over Purdue and Tennessee. Hard to find resumes this early in the season with that many quality wins away from home, especially for a power conference team.
3rd Tier
Unlike the 2nd Tier, this list continues to grow. Seton Hall has really made a jump back up recently and is sitting comfortably in this tier today. Some may question Memphis here, but I am keeping them for the time being, as my preseason expectations were high. One more rough loss for the Tigers and they will tumble, they have a resume built more on sand than concrete.
In Safely
I like these five squads to be safely in. In Safely essentially means they have done enough resume-wise to not be at risk of taking a bad loss and being completely out of the field. Teams like BYU here out of the WCC will have additional chances at bad losses, so pay attention to that closely.
In, But Not By Much
If you enjoy long lists, this group is for you! This view serves as a nice visual of how many teams are that close to being out in the event of a bad night, especially if it happens against a bad team. The last two selections (Utah and ETSU) were very tough. I am impressed just enough with Utah’s body of work to justify selection, and ETSU barely edges out Xavier with their impressive five road wins including last night’s win over UNC-Greensboro.
BIG BOARD
