The strength of the Big 12 is starting to create a problem with the bracketing rules. One of those is that teams from the same conference among the top four seeds have to be placed in different regions. The exception for that is if there are more than four teams from one conference in the top 16.
That is the case in this updated bracket. The Big 12 has five teams in the top 16, which necessitated putting two of those teams in the same region. In this case, TCU and Kansas are each in the Midwest Region.
The Big Ten still has the most teams in the bracket with 10. The Big 12 and ACC have seven each.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
Computer rankings do not compute
Early season brackets – and this is still early in the season for bracket purposes – means that some teams will have computer rankings that do not match their resumes. There are various reasons why that can happen. For a few teams with good NET rankings, their overall records or some segment of them are not good enough to get in the bracket for now. A win or two, could end up having a more dramatic impact than usual in those cases.
For example, Ohio State has lost four straight, including a loss at home to Minnesota, to fall to 10-7 overall and just 4-6 against the top three quadrants. Things might get worse before they get better for the NET No. 21 Buckeyes as they play three of their next four on the road.
Also, Creighton is still trying to recover from a six-game losing streak earlier in the season. The Bluejays are ranked 24th in the NET, but are just 10-8 overall. They are only 6-8 against the top three quadrants. I mention that split because teams with records below .500 against that group rarely get selected as at-large teams. They have three of their next five at home and the road games are Butler and Georgetown, so this is a chance to get a streak going.
Back after a break
Now that I am doing brackets every Monday and Friday, some teams will not play at all between brackets. This time, it was two of the No. 1 seeds, Houston and Purdue, getting the weekend off. The Boilermakers play a matinee at Michigan State on Monday, while the Cougars travel to Tulane on Tuesday. Tulane has won five straight, including wins over Memphis and UCF.
Welcome back Wildcats
Kentucky is back in the bracket following the Wildcats win at Tennessee on Saturday. That was their first Quad 1 win of the season and followed on the heels of a Quad 4 loss at home to South Carolina. Kentucky is far from safe though. The Wildcats are a No. 10 seed.
UConn cools off
UConn got off to a flying start and was on the cusp of rising to the top of the polls, but the Huskies have lost four out of their last five and has them slowly sliding down the bracket. The most disappointing of those losses came on Sunday when UConn lost to St. John's at home. That is currently a Quad 3 loss.
