We sort of switch things up with each week’s Bracket Projections, especially in the weeks prior to Christmas. This week we are featuring our remarkably accurate JNG RANKINGS, which are the creation of Joby Fortson. Basically, he set out to create a metric that can accurately predict what the actual selection committee is going to do. I’m personally not sure how someone can quantify a process that is done by a committee, but Joby has pretty much found a way to do it!!
The Bracket is below, and Joby’s comments are below that.
COMMENTS FROM JOBY:
So, what conferences come out well. The SEC sends 7 teams as well as the BIG but who comes next? Why the Mountain West! While this will almost assuredly not hold it does show as we enter conference play that like last year, the Mountain West will get more than a pair of teams in. Through a combination of producing overall strong records (3 teams – Utah St, New Mexico & UNLV are undefeated) and high NET ratings (all 6 of those teams are in the top 52 with one of the strongest of those teams IMO, San Diego St, the one at 52. Those bids seemingly will come out off the hide of their western counterparts parts as the Pac-12 produces 4 (Arizona, UCLA, Utah and Arizona St) and the WCC sits at 2 (Gonzaga and St. Mary’s). The A-10 also underperfroms with only 1 team barely in the at large pool.