Building a Bracket

Typically, we only present an S-Curve, largely because of all the rules around bracketing. The vast majority of bracketologists that post brackets seem to do so just for the hypotheticals without paying attention to what the Selection Committee would actually allow or do when it comes to slotting teams into spots. Today, we're going to try to follow all those rules and not just give an S-Curve, but go through the thought process of what comes out after that is done. So let's start with the S-Curve:

1-Seeds: 1-AUBURN 2-GONZAGA 3-ARIZONA 4-BAYLOR

2-Seeds: 8-Lsu 7-VILLANOVA 6-PURDUE 5-Kansas

3-Seeds: 9-DUKE 10-Ucla 11-Michigan State 12-Texas Tech

4-Seeds: 16-HOUSTON 15-Kentucky 14-Tennessee 13-Wisconsin

5-Seeds: 17-Xavier 18-Connecticut 19-Ohio State 20-Alabama

6-Seeds: 24-Marquette 23-Providence 22-Usc 21-Illinois

7-Seeds: 25-Iowa State 26-Byu 27-COLORADO STATE 28-West Virginia

8-Seeds: 32-Texas 31-San Francisco 30-St. Mary's 29-Seton Hall

9-Seeds: 33-LOYOLA CHICAGO 34-Wake Forest 35-Creighton 36-MURRAY STATE

10-Seeds: 40-San Diego State 39-Iowa 38-Indiana 37-Tcu

11-Seeds: 41-Oregon 42-Miami 43-Oklahoma 44-Wyoming 45-Florida State

12-Seeds: 50-IONA 49-UAB 48-DAVIDSON 47-North Carolina 46-Arkansas

13-Seeds: 51-CHATTANOOGA 52-NEW MEXICO STATE 53-TOLEDO 54-OAKLAND

14-Seeds: 58-TOWSON 57-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 56-WAGNER 55-VERMONT

15-Seeds: 59-PRINCETON 60-SOUTH ALABAMA 61-LIBERTY 62-UC IRVINE

16-Seeds: 68-NICHOLLS STATE 67-NORFOLK STATE 66-TEXAS SOUTHERN 65-LONGWOOD 64-MONTANA STATE 63-NAVY

I can assure you I spent a lot of time working on the bracket, but sometimes life gets in the way so I wasn't able to provide the thorough explanation I wanted to around all the picks. Sometimes, storylines are unavoidable, such as Alabama facing in-state rival UAB in the first round, simply because Alabama has played every other team on the 12-line (excluding UNC, but they are bracketed with Arkansas, who Alabama did play).

In terms of path, I always look at Marquette, who would be in the West Region, though beginning in Indianapolis, which would probably be most MU fans first eligible choice. The Wyoming/FSU play-in winner would be a challenge, as would the likely Texas Tech second round matchup. FSU and Texas Tech would be defensive challenges with lots of length while Wyoming would be a style contrast as the Cowboys can score but haven't played much real competition. If the Golden Eagles did reach the second weekend, the most tantalizing storyline would be if both they and Wisconsin managed to pull upsets in the Sweet 16, which would set up an in-state clash for the right to go to the Final Four.

Here are a few notes on the bracket construction...

Seeded Lines (1-4): On the 2-line, Kansas/Purdue and LSU/Villanova had to be swapped regions to avoid conference foes sharing seeds. This also led to UCLA and Texas Tech switching regions to give better regional parity.

At-Large Caliber Seeds (5-11): Alabama was tricky because they played almost everyone on the 12-line, leaving UAB as the only team they hadn't faced and creating an in-state matchup in the process. The 6/11 matchups were also difficult as I attempted to keep the following combinations apart: USC/UCLA and Oregon, Duke/ACC 11-seeds, and Oklahoma/Texas Tech. Lots of back-and forth to juggle the 3/6/11 lines. The 7/10s were also tricky as Iowa State/WVU/TCU, Indiana/Iowa, and Colorado State/San Diego State all had to be kept apart. The 8/9s were surprisingly easy as the only first-round potential conference clash was Creighton/Seton Hall. It was actually more difficult looking at the second round (Gonzaga/St. Mary's/San Francisco and Baylor/Texas) as well as potential three-match Big East battles in the second weekend.

Autobids (12+): This was slightly complicated by the bracket construction needing to have a play-in on the 12-line (this rarely happens) and there were a few rematch potentials to avoid, but in general this wasn't difficult. It's also important to avoid putting a seeded team into a first-round road environment. The closest to this was Kentucky/Toledo, but someone was going to have to play Toledo in Buffalo (still 300 miles from their campus) so it was the lower seeded Kentucky that drew the assignment.

Here's the bracket:

Last Four Byes: San Diego State, Oregon, Miami, Oklahoma

Last Four In: Wyoming, Florida State, Arkansas, North Carolina

First Four Out: Belmont, Mississippi State, Boise State, Texas A&M

Next Four Out: Kansas State, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Florida

 

Multibid Leagues

Big 12: 8

Big East: 7

Big 10: 7

SEC: 6

ACC: 5

Pac-12: 4

WCC: 4

MWC: 3