March 09, 2007

NCAA Tournament Field Predictions



I haven't done this in three years, but the presence of USC, Texas, and Tennessee is enough reason for me to forecast the 65 teams that will make up the field. I wanted to squeeze this in before the selection committee announces the official teams so I can say "Ha! I told you!". So here are my 65 teams that will make it to the NCAA Tournament. I have grouped the teams according to their conference, with the conference tournament champion as the first team and the rest of the teams according to their predicted seeding in the tournament.

I will also mention the last five teams in and last five out of the tournament at the end.



A-EAST Albany

ACC North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland,
Boston College, Duke

A-SUN Belmont

A-10 George Washington, Xavier

BIG 12 Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas State

BIG EAST Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Marquette,
Louisville, Syracuse, Villanova

BIG SKY Weber StateBIG SOUTH Winthrop

BIG TEN Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State,
Purdue

BIG WEST Long Beach State

CAA VCU, Old Dominion, Drexel

CUSA Memphis

HORIZON Wright State, Butler

IVY Penn

MAAC Niagara

MID-CONT Oral Roberts

MAC Miami (OH)

MEAC Florida A&M

MVC Creighton, Southern Illinois, Missouri State

MWC Brigham Young, UNLV

NEC Central Connecticut State

OVC Eastern Kentucky

PAC 10 Oregon, UCLA, Washington State, USC, Arizona

PATRIOT Holy Cross

SEC Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky

SOUTHERN Davidson

SOUTHLAND *Texas A&M Corpus Christi

SWAC Jackson State

SUN BELT North Texas

WCC Gonzaga

WAC New Mexico State, Nevada

* or winner of Texas A&M CC and Northwestern State

Before Saturday, I thought this year's field is fairly weak at the bottom. Lots of the teams would have been bubbled out in other years but made the field this year. However, with a round of upsets in conference tournament finals, some of those bubble teams were knocked out. The automatic qualifier for New Mexico State, Wright State, and George Washington means three spots were taken from West Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Mississippi State, which were my last three teams out. Now, let's see how accurate my predictions are!

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