It's time for March Madness! Every Monday this time of year, i do a mock NCAA Tournament bracket, based solely on the Sagarin ratings. The only adjustments i make are to make sure that conference teams cannot possibly face each other prior to the Regional Finals, and to make sure that two teams from the same conference are not seeded #1 and #2 in the same regional.
Sagarin's top 4 teams are, in this order: UNC, Illinois, Duke, and Wake Forest. Yes, 3 ACC teams. It really is better out here.
For the automatic conference qualifiers, i assume that the top team rated by Sagarin in each conference will win their tournament. And then i take the remaining top X teams to get to 64 (i ignore the play-in game).
The last at-large team in this week is Stanford, rated #48. First team missing the cut was Wichita St.
By conference, the ACC gets 6 bids, including the Wolfpack. The Big 10 gets 6, as does the Big 12 (including the surprising Aggies). The Big East has 7 teams, including two 11 seeds. The SEC also gets 7.
For my Blue Devil friends, the Duke path starts with Farleigh Dickinson, then the winner of Arkansas vs. Texas A&M. Then a likely path of Boston College or Wisconsin, and then either Washington or Michigan St.
For my brother, the Tar Heel, UNC starts with Mississippi Valley St (who gave Duke a scare about 15 years ago in the first round). Then, Iowa/Mississippi St. Then, Villanova/Texas Tech. And then, Oklahoma St./Louisville.
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