Editor’s Note: The accompanying article was published on Tuesday, March 1st, 2016.
I am Daniel Jakes, and I am a part of a bracketology club from Delphi Community High School in Delphi, Indiana. This group consists of six juniors and seniors, four teachers, and one graduate. We created the club in order to discuss sports, but it has evolved into much more than that. We now come together to try and predict the NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket.
Now enough about us. This is the first of hopefully many more articles to come about the NCAA bracketing procedures, so let’s get to it. As our four number one seeds go we have the Kansas Jayhawks as the overall number one, followed by Virginia, Villanova, and Oklahoma. The one seed line has seen many teams this season. Virginia was recently a two seed, but with their win over North Carolina on Saturday we felt convinced they should be a one seed on our bracket. As for our two seeds, we have Miami (FL), Michigan State, Oregon, and Xavier. Xavier, who was coming off of a big win against Villanova Wednesday, lost to Seton Hall on Sunday costing them the chance for a bid as a one seed.
The biggest disagreements within our group and other bracketologists may be the three seed line, which includes North Carolina, West Virginia, Utah, and Texas. The Utes are coming off of a victory against Arizona on Saturday, which may turn out to be a marquee win if they plan to stay a high seed. North Carolina as a three seed may come as a surprise to most. Losing to Duke at home and to Virginia on the road may be two games that keep them from a higher seed. Texas is coming in off of a win against Oklahoma, which has moved them all the way up to a three seed.
All of these teams are tough to seed, but the most difficult seeds for us are four through six. There could be a compelling argument to move any of these teams up or down a seed line. Iowa may be one of the more complex teams to seed. Coming up with a solid argument to keep Iowa as one of the top four teams may be difficult. They have swept the season series between Michigan State and Purdue, but they have lost four of their last five. This is an example of the complexities of seeding.
Below we have included the most recent copy of our bracket. We hope that you can find your team as a part of the bracket, or that they are trying to compete for one of the 68 spots among the tournament field. We look forward to sharing more bracketology in the future. Until next time, this is Delphi Bracketology.
