Before you look at the bracket, I want to make sure you know what you’re looking at. This is a CHECKPOINT of CURRENT MERIT. It is NOT an attempt to select or seed teams based on how good I think they actually are, nor is it an attempt to guess what the real committee will do in March. I’m really just asking myself one question: How hard was it for this team to win the games that they’ve won?? I’ve tried to guess the real committee before, and I am terrible at it. We have other people on this site who do that. So, the bracket probably looks ridiculous if you’re looking for something that predicts the committee.
Since this is a Merit Based bracket, here is a list of teams that I believe to be good, but have zero in terms of merit as of today: Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Wake Forest, Wyoming, Ohio State, Villanova, Wisconsin, UCLA, Florida State, Syracuse, San Francisco
ON THE BOARD, BUT NOT IN THE BRACKET: Stanford, LSU, Virginia, Georgia, Texas A&M, Northwestern, George Mason, Washington, William & Mary, VCU, George Washington
COMMENTS FROM THE PUPPET:
-Michigan blew through the Players Era. They’ve played a tough schedule, won all their games, and beat several good teams by a lot of points. They have a solid case for being the #1 overall seed, but I still went with Arizona. The win at UConn was just too good to overlook. I think it’s the best win anyone has so far, and may end up being the best singular win any team manages this season.
-I know it’s early and that we’ve only played about half a football season in terms of games, but having said that, I’d be willing to bet that more than half of the teams that are in this bracket as protected seeds end up as protected seeds in March.
-I like Utah State and Dayton a lot, but I don’t think either one of them will end up as protected seeds. Still, they’re off to really good starts.
-I like McNeese and Tulsa a lot, but I don’t think either one of them will end up seeded as high as the 6 line come March, especially not McNeese. It is possible that McNeese can make a run at landing inside the bubble if they can blow through the rest of their schedule.
