Bracketology 3/3/2021

A busy two days on the bubble once again. Michigan State and Georgia Tech continue to shore up their tournament cases with wins over fellow bubble teams Indiana and Duke. At the same time, some non-power bubble teams are playing themselves into trouble, as St. Bonaventure lost to Dayton while Richmond and Boise State took Q4 losses to Saint Joe’s and Fresno State, respectively.

The bubble is starting to shrink, the top ~40 teams in the seed list are pretty safe while any team beyond the Next Four Out is pretty far from the field. There might be one surprise or two down the stretch, but for now it looks like we have around 16 teams for 8 spots.

1: Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan, Illinois

2: Ohio State, Alabama, Iowa, Houston

3: West Virginia, Villanova, Kansas, Arkansas

4: Florida State, Creighton, Oklahoma State, Purdue

5: Virginia, USC, Wisconsin, Colorado

6: Texas, BYU, Clemson, Oklahoma

7: Florida, Tennessee, Texas Tech, San Diego State

8: UCLA, Missouri, Oregon, Loyola Chicago

9: Maryland, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Rutgers

10: North Carolina, Connecticut, St. Bonaventure, LSU

11: VCU, Drake, Michigan State, Georgia Tech

12: (Wichita State/Xavier), (Colorado State/Seton Hall), Western Kentucky, Colgate

13: UC Santa Barbara, Belmont, Winthrop, Toledo

14: Liberty, UNC Greensboro, Abilene Christian, Eastern Washington

15: Vermont, South Dakota State, Siena, Grand Canyon

16: Texas State, Wagner, (Cleveland State/James Madison), (North Carolina A&T/Prairie View A&M)

First Four Out: Boise State, Western Kentucky, SMU, Saint Louis

Next Four Out: Duke, Indiana, Memphis, Minnesota

Also Considered: Mississippi, Richmond, Utah State, St. Mary’s

Moving In: Seton Hall, Cleveland State

Moving Out: Boise State, Wright State

Bids by Conference:

Big Ten: 9

ACC: 7

Big 12: 7

SEC: 6

Big East: 5

Pac-12: 4

American: 2

Atlantic 10: 2

Missouri Valley: 2

Mountain West: 2

West Coast: 2