Purdue returns to No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY Sports Sports Update heading into Selection Sunday with the Boilermakers in position to defeat Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game and earn that league’s automatic bid.
Kansas fell from the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament after losing the Big 12 championship game to Texas. But the Jayhawks remain in first place, joining the Boilermakers, Alabama and Houston. The biggest loser on a wild Saturday was UCLA. The Bruins were poised to potentially retain their spot as the top seed, but narrowly lost to Arizona in the Pac-12 title game.
A welcome sight for us bracketologists was the lack of bid stealers among the multi-bid leagues. That helped nail down a 68-team field that generally lacks much of the controversy that usually dominates the final selection process.
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But three teams had arguments to make the bracket, even if those arguments didn’t hold water in the end.
The top team in our bracket is Clemson, which finished the regular season with 23 wins after losing to Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. But despite five wins in Quad 1, the Tigers were undone by too many bad losses, including a combined four against Quad 3 and Quad 4 competition, notably South Carolina and Loyola Chicago.
Vanderbilt came very close after getting hot late, posting 10 wins in 11 games before meeting Texas A&M in the SEC semifinals. The Commodores could have been in the game with a win against the Aggies, but lost 87-75. And Oklahoma State had six wins in Quad 1. But that was mostly thanks to being in the Big 12, where nearly every league game featured at least one Quad 1 opponent. The Cowboys only won a third of their chances.
Teams in bold won places
The last four in
Southern California, Mississippi State, Arizona State, Rutgers.
The first four go out
Clemson, Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt, Oregon.
Next four out
North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada.
Dissolution of the conference
More big leagues: Big Ten (9), SEC (8), Big 12 (7), ACC (5), Big East (5), Pac-12 (4), Mountain West (3), American Athletic (2), West Coast ( 2).
Automatic offers
Vermont (America East), Duke (ACC), Kennesaw State (Atlantic Sun), Texas (Big 12), Marquette (Big East), Montana State (Big Sky), UNC Asheville (Big South), UC Santa Barbara (Big West ) ), College of Charleston (Colonial), Florida Atlantic (Conference USA), Northern Kentucky (Horizon), Iona (MAAC), Kent State (MAC), Howard (MEAC), Drake (Missouri Valley), San Diego State (Mountain West) ), Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast), Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley), Arizona (Pac-12), Colgate (Patriot), Furman (South) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (South), Oral Roberts (Summit), Louisiana -Lafayette (Sun Belt), Gonzaga (West Coast), Grand Canyon (WAC).
