Here is my Field of 68, through games of February 3, broken down by conference. Note that the winner of the conference is the team that I feel is the best team in the conference, which may at times not be the first place team.
America East (1): Stony Brook
ACC (4): Miami, North Carolina State, Duke, North Carolina
Atlantic Sun (1): Florida Gulf Coast
Atlantic Ten (4): Butler, Virginia Commonwealth, La Salle, Saint Louis
Big East (7): Syracuse, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Notre Dame
Big Sky (1): Montana
Big South (1): Charleston Southern
Big Ten (7): Michigan, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa
Big Twelve (5): Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Iowa State
Big West (1): Long Beach State
Colonial (1): Northeastern
Conference USA (2): Memphis, Southern Miss
Horizon (1): Valparaiso
Ivy (1): Harvard
Metro Atlantic (1): Niagara
MAC (1): Akron
MEAC (1): North Carolina Central
Missouri Valley (3): Creighton, Wichita State, Indiana State
Mountain West (6): New Mexico, UNLV, Colorado State, San Diego State, Air Force, Boise State
Northeast (1): Robert Morris
Ohio Valley (1): Belmont
Pac 12 (4): Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, Colorado
Patriot (1): Bucknell
SEC (3): Florida, Ole Miss, Missouri
Southern (1): Davidson
Southland (1): Stephen F Austin
SWAC (1): Southern
Summit (1): North Dakota State
Sun Belt (1): Middle Tennessee
West Coast (3): Gonzaga, BYU, St. Mary’s
WAC (1): Louisiana Tech
Last four in: Indiana State, Air Force, Boise State, BYU
First four out: Illinois, Baylor, Arizona State, Kentucky
Others considered: Virginia, Florida State, Maryland, Charlotte, UMass, St Joe’s, Richmond, Temple, St. John’s, Villanova, Northwestern, Wyoming, Washington, Stanford
A few notes about this week’s field:
The bubble just keeps getting bigger and bigger. In the ACC, bubble teams Virginia, Florida State and Maryland continue to stumble, as did Villanova in the Big East. The A-10 was also a complete mess this week with 9 times under consideration but only four making it into the field.
The Pac Twelve continues to look better and better this year as four teams made it into the field fairly easily and Arizona State almost made it five. Washington and Stanford have both moved onto my radar as well and could play their way in.
In the SEC, Kentucky’s profile is starting to look better and I finally have them not only on my radar, but in fact as one of my first four teams out of the field. However, Calipari’s team must continue winning if they want to make up for the lack of big wins as well as the overall weakness of the SEC.
Finally, the Mountain West had 7 of its 9 members on the board, with 6 of them finding a way in. The big mover this week was Air Force, a team that just finds a way to keep winning games. It wouldnt shock me to see the Falcons fall apart quickly, but if I had to pick a field right now, I would put them in.
Finally, here is my S-Curve of these 68 teams:
1. Indiana
2. Florida
3. Michigan
4. Duke
5. Kansas
6. Arizona
7. Ohio State
8. Gonzaga
9. Syracuse
10. Miami
11. Louisville
12. Michigan State
13. Kansas State
14. Butler
15. New Mexico
16. Oregon
17. Pittsburgh
18. Creighton
19. Colorado State
20. Wichita State
21. Cincinnati
22. Marquette
23. VCU
24. North Carolina State
25. Wisconsin
26. Belmont
27. Oklahoma State
28. Georgetown
29. Minnesota
30. San Diego State
31. Missouri
32. Notre Dame
33. Oklahoma
34. UNLV
35. Colorado
36. Ole Miss
37. Akron
38. North Carolina
39. Memphis
40. UCLA
41. Middle Tennessee
42. Saint Louis
43. Iowa
44. Southern Miss
45. Saint Mary’s
46. Louisiana Tech
47. Iowa State
48. La Salle
49. BYU
50. Boise State
51. Indiana State
52. Air Force
53. Stephen F. Austin
54. Valparaiso
55. Bucknell
56. Davidson
57. North Dakota State
58. Montana
59. Long Beach State
60. Northeastern
61. Harvard
62. Niagara
63. Stony Brook
64. Florida Gulf Coast
65. Charleston Southern
66. Robert Morris
67. North Carolina Central
68. Southern