Jerry Palm runs the site at collegerpi.com.
His first bracket is up, but comments say a lot:
"Unlike later brackets, this is as much feel as anything. RPI is more meaningless than ever. Conference standings are useless, except to pick the automatic qualifiers. Poll rankings get a lot more weight. As much as anything, this is just to get us looking at brackets again.
One thing that may very well be the same in March is that the Big East could put nine teams in the field. That would be a record, but when you consider the size of the conference, it's really not that big a number.
Another thing we may see is a paucity of at-large bids from the non-majors. This bracket only has three, and at this point, there really aren't an overwhelming number of at-large candidates out there from the non-majors. The Valley is down, as are Gonzaga, Memphis and Davidson. The only non-majors in the rankings at the moment are Butler, Xavier and in the coaches' poll, St. Mary's. There may not be a lot of bid stealing this year because there may not be a lot of bids to steal."
His bracket has Bradley as the lone MVC team currently in as a 14 seed against Texas (funny - other 14 seeds are VMI, St F Austin and Cornell).
Conferences with more than one bid:
9 - Big East
7 - ACC, Big Ten (UIUC an 8seed vs UNLV in Pitt's bracket)
5 - Big 12, Pac 10
4 - SEC
2 - A10, Mtn West, WCC
Last 4 in:
Arizona, Dayton, South Carolina, Washington
Next 4 left out:
Kentucky, Maryland, San Diego St, Utah
His first bracket is up, but comments say a lot:
"Unlike later brackets, this is as much feel as anything. RPI is more meaningless than ever. Conference standings are useless, except to pick the automatic qualifiers. Poll rankings get a lot more weight. As much as anything, this is just to get us looking at brackets again.
One thing that may very well be the same in March is that the Big East could put nine teams in the field. That would be a record, but when you consider the size of the conference, it's really not that big a number.
Another thing we may see is a paucity of at-large bids from the non-majors. This bracket only has three, and at this point, there really aren't an overwhelming number of at-large candidates out there from the non-majors. The Valley is down, as are Gonzaga, Memphis and Davidson. The only non-majors in the rankings at the moment are Butler, Xavier and in the coaches' poll, St. Mary's. There may not be a lot of bid stealing this year because there may not be a lot of bids to steal."
His bracket has Bradley as the lone MVC team currently in as a 14 seed against Texas (funny - other 14 seeds are VMI, St F Austin and Cornell).
Conferences with more than one bid:
9 - Big East
7 - ACC, Big Ten (UIUC an 8seed vs UNLV in Pitt's bracket)
5 - Big 12, Pac 10
4 - SEC
2 - A10, Mtn West, WCC
Last 4 in:
Arizona, Dayton, South Carolina, Washington
Next 4 left out:
Kentucky, Maryland, San Diego St, Utah
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