Bracketology 2009 Presented by BetUS.com!

 

Saturday March 14^th, 2009

 

I’ll post more storylines throughout the afternoon, but here’s the bracket in a jiffy:

 

The bubble shook itself out a tad bit, as a few teams played themselves out.  Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky all went home in the SEC tournament, and can rest assured their all headed for the NIT.  Unless Auburn can get past Tennessee today, the once strong conference could be looking at a 2-bid season.

 

St. Mary’s, and more importantly Patty Mills, looked strong, giving the Gaels a hell of a case for a spot in the field.  I imagine much of my lock-in this evening will be spent debating their place in the bracket.  One bubble bid is gone as the A10’s bid will either go to Temple or Duqense, who each would have missed. 

 

Plenty of other bids could get stolen today.  If you’re a bubble team, here’s what you want to see happen today:  Memphis over Tulsa, Tennessee over Auburn, Duke over Maryland, Arizona State over USC, and Utah State over Nevada.  Losses by Auburn, Maryland and USC wouldn’t 100% eliminate them (especially Maryland so long as they don’t get blown out), but it would sure help the cause if you’re on the outside looking in.

 

Keep in mind I swapped a few teams one seed from their “true seed” to follow the NCAA’s guidelines of doing so in order to a) avoid rematches or b) keep teams closer to home. 

 

With that in mind, here’s a look at today’s bracket (click to enlarge, you may have to click twice to get at full size)

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The bReAkDoWn

Big Ten (8)

Locked-In – Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State

Nearly Locked – Minnesota,  Michigan

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN – Penn State

Bubble, but OUT –

BIG EAST (7)

Locked-In – UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Marquette, Villanova, Syracuse, West Virginia

Nearly Locked –

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT – Providence

ACC (7)

Locked-In – North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State

Nearly Locked –

Solidly In – Boston College

Bubble, but IN – Maryland

Bubble, but OUT – Virginia Tech

Big 12 (6)

Locked-In – Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri

Nearly Locked – Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT –

PAC 10 (5)

Locked-In – Washington, UCLA, Cal

Nearly Locked – Arizona State

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT – USC, Arizona

Mountain West (3)

Locked-In – Utah

Nearly Locked – BYU

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN – San Diego State

Bubble, but OUT – New Mexico

Atlantic 10 (3)

Locked-In – Xavier, Dayton

Nearly Locked –

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT –

Bubble Buster – Temple

SEC (2)

Locked-In– LSU

Nearly Locked – Tennessee

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT – South Carolina, Florida, Auburn, Kentucky

West Coast (1)

Locked-In – Gonzaga

Nearly Locked –

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN –

Bubble, but OUT – Saint Mary’s

The 1 Bidders:

(Teams are put where they would be without the protection of an automatic bid)

Bubble Busters (locked in but upset in Conference Tourney): Butler

Clinched Automatic Bids: Cornell (Ivy), East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), Morehead State (OVC), Radford (Big South), Northern Iowa (MVC), Siena (MAAC), Chattanooga (SoCon), Cleveland State (Horizon), Portland State (Big Sky) VCU (CAA), Western Kentucky (Sun Belt), North Dakota State (Summit), Robert Morris (Northeast), American (Patriot),

Not Automatic yet, but still Locked-In – Memphis (C-USA)

Nearly Locked –

Solidly In –

Bubble, but IN – Utah State (WAC)

Bubble, but OUT –

Must Win Their Tournaments: Binghamton (America East), Bowling Green (MAC), Cal State Northridge (Big West), Morgan State (MEAC), Stephen F Austin (Southland), Alabama State (SWAC)