Selection Sunday

Christmas is here. As I mentioned last week, I have an unhealthy infatuation with the NCAA Bracket. For the past three years I have attempted to predict the teams going to the Tournament and what seeds they will have. I have had varying results.

Last week I found a website called The Bracket Project that has graded the majority of the bracket predictions on the web. The rankings are based on receiving 3 points for every team correctly predicted, 2 points for every seed correct, and 1 point for every team with in one seed. In 2006, I scored 278. Ranking 17 out of 23 brackets. In 2007 I had my best year, I ranked 2nd out of 30 brackets with a score of 297. Beating the likes of Joe Lunardi, Jerry Palm, CBSSportline, CNNSI, Rivals, and Yahoo. Then last year I was brought back to earth quickly with a score of 293, which ranked 49 of 53. Lets see how I do this year.

The Bubble was extremely tight this year. I had 6 final teams fighting for 3 spots. My last 3 in were Minnesota, Arizona, and Creighton. My last 3 out, Auburn, Wisconsin, and St. Mary's. Auburn was knocked out at the last second by conference foe Mississippi St. making a surprise run in the SEC Tournament. This was not based on SEC affiliation simply by being the final team in on my board.

The two biggest difference you will see in my bracket will be the exclusion of Wisconsin and Duke as a 1 seed. Wisconsin just did not have the big wins Arizona and Minnesota had and had the same number of top 100 wins as Creighton. As for Duke as a 1. I think the committee will reward them for being the only highly ranked team to take care of business during Championship week.

So to the predictions

1 seeds - Louisville, Pitt, UNC, Duke
2 seeds - Uconn, Memphis, Michigan St, Oklahoma
3 seeds - Kansas, Wake Forest, Missouri, Villanova
4 seeds - Washington, Syracuse, UCLA, Florida St
5 seeds - Gonzaga, Illinois, Arizona St, Purdue
6 seeds - West Virginia, Marquette, Tennessee, Ohio St.
7 seeds - Utah, LSU, Clemson, Xavier
8 seeds - Butler, Oklahoma St, Texas, Texas A&M
9 seeds - USC, BYU, Cal, Boston College
10 seeds - Maryland, Michigan, Dayton, Temple
11 seeds - Utah St, Arizona, Siena, Minnesota
12 seeds - Cleveland St, Creighton, Western Kentucky, Mississippi St.
13 seeds - Akron, Binghamton, Northern Iowa, VCU
14 seeds - North Dakota St, Portland St., CS Northridge, American
15 seeds - Cornell, Robert Morris, East Tennessee St., Stephen F Austin
16 seeds - Alabama St, Morgan St., Chattanooga, Morehead St., Radford

Enjoy the Selection Show!

Follow Up - Grading BZ Nation in 2009

64/65 teams. 28 seeds correct and 54 seeds within 1 line.

This year the avearge grade the Bracket Project gave to its 60 brackets was 303.4. The picks above score a 302, putting me below the average bracket and finishing 39th out of 60. BZ Nation does not accept mediocrity so this was not an acceptable year. However you would have been better getting your picks from The Nation than The Washington Times, Yahoo, The New York Post, The Sporting News or Sports Illustrated. All publications we outscored.

Now on to the games!