The Most Accurate Bracketology of the 2017-18 Season Returns! (According to BracketMatrix.Com’s annual rankings)

With the NET rankings this year being at least a little nicer to mid-majors, and the increased scrutiny on the committee after plenty of high quality mid-major teams have been left out in recent years, there have been calls (including from yours truly) for current conference leaders from mid-major leagues to be considered as at-large teams should they lose in their conference tournament. Currently, these calls have centered around four teams: Belmont, Lipscomb, VCU, and most fervently, Wofford. This week in my bracketology I moved Wofford up to the nine line, meaning that should they lose in their conference title game, they wouldn’t even be considered to be dropped out of the field. To illustrate this, let’s compare Wofford to my current last two in and first two out: Arizona State, Butler, Temple, and Utah State

Looking at these numbers I think it is hard, if not impossible to say that Wofford should not be considered for an at-large bid should they fail to win the SoCon autobid, in fact, I would say that they should not only need to be considered, but should be clearly in

S-Curve

GREEN – Moved up one or more seed line
RED – Moved down one or more seed line
BLUE – New to bracket
Italicized – Team will play in First Four play-in game

Changes are from: 1/29

Note: The furthest left team is considered to be the highest ranked on the seed line and the furthest right is considered to be the lowest ranked

1 Seeds: Duke, Virginia, Tennessee, Gonzaga
2 Seeds: Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan State
3 Seeds: Houston, Purdue, Kansas, Marquette
4 Seeds: Nevada, Louisville, Iowa State, Texas Tech
5 Seeds: Wisconsin, LSU, Villanova, Kansas State
6 Seeds: Iowa, Maryland, Florida State, Virginia Tech
7 Seeds: Cincinnati, Mississippi State, Buffalo, Auburn
8 Seeds: Washington, Ohio State, TCU, Baylor
9 Seeds: Syracuse, Oklahoma, Texas, Wofford
10 Seeds: St. John’s, Ole Miss, Minnesota, NC State
11 Seeds: Alabama, Clemson, VCU, Indiana
12 Seeds: UCF, Seton Hall, Lipscomb, Arizona State, Butler, Belmont
13 Seeds: New Mexico State, Hofstra, Yale, Vermont
14 Seeds: UC Irvine, South Dakota State, Northern Kentucky, Old Dominion
15 Seeds: Texas State, Loyola-Chicago, Montana, Radford
16 Seeds: Bucknell, Sam Houston State, Rider, Prairie View A&M, Norfolk State, Robert Morris

Dropped Out: Nebraska, Temple, Murray State, North Texas

Bubble Watch

Avoiding Dayton

NC State
Alabama
Clemson
Indiana

Last Four In

UCF
Seton Hall
Arizona State
Butler

First Four Out

Temple
Utah State
Nebraska
Murray State

Next Four Out

Florida
Toledo
Creighton
UNC-Greensboro

By Conference

Big 12 – 8 Bids (80% of the conference)
Big Ten – 9 Bids (64%)
ACC – 9 Bids (64%)
SEC – 7 Bids (50%)
Big East – 5 Bids (50%)
American – 3 Bids (25%)
Pac-12 – 2 Bids (17%)