Bracketology 12/10/2020

We’re a little more than two weeks into the season, and there hasn’t been a ton of movement at the top of the bracket. Gonzaga and Baylor have put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field, although the matchup between them was unfortunately canceled. Traditional blue bloods Duke and Kentucky have fallen quite a bit- I’m more confident that Duke can turn things around than Kentucky, who lost to a very average Georgia Tech team.

The protected seeds are littered with Big 12 and Big Ten teams, with 5 from each conference. The Big Ten has 8 teams on the top 6 seed lines- a nice performance in the Big Ten/ACC challenge certainly helped their cause, and this season could end up looking like last year with 10 or more teams in the tournament.

I’ll update things again around Christmas, some major conferences are starting conference play between now and then.

1: Gonzaga, Baylor, Kansas, Michigan State

2: Texas, Villanova, Houston, Iowa

3: Illinois, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Creighton

4: Texas Tech, Michigan, Louisville, Florida State

5: Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, Duke

6: Clemson, Rutgers, Saint Louis, Virginia

7: Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas, San Diego State

8: UCLA, Marquette, Missouri, Xavier

9: Oregon, Richmond, Arizona State, NC State

10: Stanford, Connecticut, Miami (FL), Oklahoma State

11: LSU, USC, Loyola Chicago, Kentucky

12: (Maryland/Virginia Tech), (Oklahoma/Alabama), Furman, Western Kentucky

13: South Dakota State, Vermont, Murray State, New Mexico State

14: Toledo, Georgia State, Wright State, Liberty

15: Abilene Christian, UC Santa Barbara, Winthrop, Siena

16: Colgate, Drexel, (Southern Utah/Texas Southern), (Norfolk State/Bryant)

First Four Out: Arizona, Syracuse, Providence, Mississippi

Next Four Out: Minnesota, SMU, Utah, Cincinnati