Bracketology can be a mess.
You’ll find that to be the case in this edition of Bauertology, which was, from top to bottom, the most difficult version yet to accurately sort, select, seed, and shove into the bracket.
At least I feel confident in my top four seed lines; those selections all seem pretty rock solid to me. But things get shaky near the bubble, where—no joke—you can make an argument for 12 teams for the last six spots in any order and could justify it. Just nonsense!
Things get even wilder when putting the bracket together. With six Big 12 teams in my top four seed lines and a plethora of Big Ten teams hogging the 6-11 pods, bracket placement rules come into effect. In addition to having to swap around some teams in the top 16 location-wise to maintain balance, teams had to be moved around from preferred locations (including moving Gonzaga from the West Region to the South), and seed lines had to be swapped out of true seed order (Kent State benefits greatly from the Big Ten being a headache to put into the bracket).
You’ll see all the wackiness below in today’s edition of Bauertology. If you have any questions or catch any error, let me hear ’em! This bracket is in need of a good breakdown. Let’s hope things start to clear up a little by this time a month from now.
THE BRACKET
THE TRUE SEED LIST, BUBBLE, AND BIDS BY CONFERENCE
