BRACKETOLOGY BULLSHIT: A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY - MIKE IN DA

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BRACKETOLOGY BULLSHIT: A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/13/2011

If you’ve been following the Peanut Gallery, you know how much of a waste of time that bracketology is. Yet each year, tons of hours are spent on these by sportswriters, sports networks, and sports talkers, both national and local, especially for the NFL draft.


In the 3/2 PG (http://sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/comments-from-peanut-gallery-mike-in-da.html), in the section entitled, “Mock This”, I told you about a mock selection seminar held at great expense in a luxury hotel near the center of downtown Indianapolis, as twenty media members, conference representatives, and college basketball influencers gathered to seed the tournament just like it would be done on Selection Sunday.

Among the participants were CBS and SI.com’s Seth Davis, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Colonial Athletic Association deputy commissioner Ron Bertovich (a former Atlantic 10 commissioner), Sports Illustrated’s Andy Glockner, the Houston Chronicle’s Jeffrey Martin, Conference USA’s Chris Woolard, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Ken Taylor, CBS Sports’ Steve Scheer, the Big East Conference’s Tom Odjakjian, the Big Ten Network’s Mike Hall, the Dallas Morning News’ Kate Hairopoulos, Yahoo Sports’ Jason King and HoopsReport.com’s Ryan Feldman.

Let’s see how they did. Below are the 31 conference winners that they selected. After each name, it tells you whether or not the team won or lost its conference (conference winners in bold):


TEXAS – lost Big 12
BYU – lost Mountain West
PURDUE – lost Big Ten
VILLANOVA – lost Big East
KENTUCKY – won SEC
WASHINGTON – won PAC 10
VIRGINIA TECH – lost ACC
RICHMOND – won ACC
UAB – lost Conference USA
CLEVELAND STATE – lost Horizon League
PRINCETON (won Ivy League regular season champs; no tournament)
BELMONT – won Atlantic Sun
VCU – lost Colonial
OAKLAND – won Summit
NORTHERN IOWA – lost Missouri Valley
PORTLAND – lost West Coast
BUCKNELL – won Patriot League
FAIRFIELD – lost MAAC
MONTANA – lost Big Sky
FLORIDA ATLANTIC – lost Sun Belt
FURMAN – lost Southern Conference
PACIFIC – lost Big West
NEW MEXICO STATE – lost WAC
MURRAY STATE – lost Ohio Valley
LIBERTY- lost Big South
HAMPTON – won MEAC
QUINNIPIAC – lost Northeast Conference
TEXAS SOUTHERN – lost SWAC
BUFFALO – lost MAC
MAINE – lost America East
NORTHWESTERN STATE – lost Southland Conference

That’s eight winners out of 31. Meanwhile, the Crier who was not invited to Indy took the challenge and selected his own conference winners on March 2 and hit on 16 of 31, picking the winners of the Mountain West, Big 12, A-10, WAC, ACC, Big 10, Ivy League, MEAC, Patriot League, Horizon League, Atlantic Sun, Conference USA, Big Sky, West Coast, Summit, and Northeast Conference.


These “experts” also selected eight teams for the “First Four” Round, which basically consists of the last four bubble teams in the tourney and the four weakest conference winners. These games will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (3/15 and 3/16) in Dayton, OH. I said I would be impressed if they had more than one right.


Their bubble teams were Florida State, Gonzaga, Georgia, and Butler. And their four weakest conference winners were Texas Southern, Buffalo. Maine, and Northwestern State.


Of their four “bubble” teams, all made the tourney, but not as bubble teams. And of their four weakest conference winners, none made the tourney, which made them 0-for-8 for the "First Four". They couldn’t even hit one.

Below is the “experts'” seeding with the actual seeding in parentheses after each team’s name:



1. Ohio State (1)
2. Texas (16)
3. Pittsburgh (3)
4. Kansas (2)
5. Duke (4)
6. BYU (11)
7. San Diego State (8)
8. Georgetown (22)
9. UConn (12)
10. Notre Dame (6)
11. Purdue (10)
12. Wisconsin (15)
13. Florida (7)
14. Villanova (33)
15. Kentucky (13)
16. Vanderbilt (18)
17. North Carolina (5)
18. Xavier (21)
19. St. John’s (23)
20. Texas A&M (26)
21. Louisville (14)
22. Syracuse (9)
23. Missouri (45)
24. Arizona (20)
25. West Virginia (17)
26. Tennessee (36)
27. Temple (28)
28. George Mason (29)
29. Washington (25)
30. UCLA (27)
31. Illinois (34)
32. Old Dominion (35)
33. UNLV (30)
34. Memphis (50)
35. Kansas State (19)
36. Virginia Tech (out)
37. Cincinnati (24)
38. St. Mary’s (out)
39. Utah State (49)
40. Minnesota (out)
41. Georgia (37)
42. Butler (31)
43. Florida State (38)
44. Gonzaga (44)
45. Richmond (48)
46. UAB (46)
47. Cleveland State (out)
48. Princeton (51)
49. Belmont (53)
50. VCU (43)
51. Oakland (54)
52. Northern Iowa (out)
53. Portland (out)
54. Bucknell (58)
55. Fairfield (out)
56. Montana (out)
57. Florida Atlantic (out)
58. Furman (out)
59. Pacific (out)
60. New Mexico State (out)
61. Murray State (out)
62. Liberty (out)
63. Hampton (68)
64. Quinnipiac (out)
65. Texas Southern (out)
66. Buffalo (out)
67. Maine (out)
68. Northwestern State (out)

Teams that made the tourney, but were left out by the mock selectors were: Michigan (32), Michigan State (39), Penn State (40), Marquette (41), USC (42), and Clemson (47).


Besides minor conference losers that were included by the mock selectors, several others left out of the tourney were: Virginia Tech (36), St. Mary’s (38), and Minnesota (40). In total, of the 68 spots, the mock selectors had 49 teams right compared to the Crier hitting on 56 teams.


Nice going, guys. And these guys get paid for doing this shit and are not held accountable, if they screw up.

Now for the next two weeks, I have to listen to people talking about their fuckin' brackets. BRACKET THIS!

Meanwhile, my boys and I will follow the Crier and SR Crew who will post their analysis of the first week's tournament games here on Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, the Crier will have NIT, College Basketball Invitational, and CollegeInsider.com action for his serious followers.

Really who cares about the seeds. Just play the games, so we can bet on them.




MIKE IN DA

HMW