A new bracket projection came out, the first since the debut of the NET ranking on Monday. There are some anomalies there, which is to be expected, since there is not the typical number of games played that we normally have at this time of year.
There were also some strange day-to-day moves for teams that didn’t play that can’t be explained simply by a change in the quality of a team’s schedule. For example, Rutgers lost 23 to the state of Michigan on Tuesday night. In the NET ranking on Wednesday, the Scarlet Knights dropped from 19 to 24, while the Spartans went up 11 to 109. The next day, with no teams playing, Rutgers dropped another 13 places, while Michigan State went up 28. It’s like the impact of the results of a game is a day behind. This is just an example.
For the first bracket, I had to use the RPI to define the quadrants, but for this and future brackets, NET will be used. After all, this is your job. This means that you can see some counterintuitive moves in the key from Monday to today, because the resumes can look very different with the change in the rating system.
Top Bracketology Seeds
Check out Palm’s last key, field 68, the last four to enter and the first four to leave
One thing that didn’t move was the teams in the top row of the bracket. Gonzaga, Baylor, Villanova and Texas are still the first four seeds. The team with the best seed down a line was Rutgers, who went from 2nd to 3rd after the loss at Michigan State.
Cowboys in consideration
The state of Oklahoma has been added to the bracket for now. The Cowboys received a post-season ban for the 2020-21 season, but as they are attractive, they are still eligible until the appeal is decided.
There are currently 138 postponed games, all of them conference games. More than 40 teams are paused due to problems with the COVID-19. This is an ongoing problem throughout the season. With regard to the selection process, teams can only be judged by the schedule they played and the results of those matches. They cannot receive credit for a stronger or weaker schedule because of the games that ended up being canceled, nor can the results of those canceled games be presumed. You are what your resume says you are.
Assuming the college football championship game is played as scheduled on Monday night, the next key projection will be on January 15.