LAST FOUR IN: Kennesaw State, Furman, Eastern Washington, Nicholls
FIRST FIVE OUT: Samford, McNeese, Western Carolina, Delaware, Montana
Oddly, the bubble solidified just a smidge this week. But that’s a little bit of a two-way statement. The number of teams finding their way out of contention wasn’t necessarily increased. However, the lucky set-up from the schedule gods will give us a number of games in this next week that will eliminate one team or the other. In this way, it guarantees the shrinking by this time next week.
Eastern Washington returns to the tree, despite not playing. A benefit of many of the fringe teams losing. They took the spot vacated by Samford. This gives the Big Sky a fourth bid and takes the SoCon down to two. Colgate replaces Lehigh in the Patriot, as their automatic, after Lehigh lost and Colgate improved to 5-4.
Coming on Wednesday will be a deeper look into the current state of Bracketology. A conference by conference glance for all teams with even the remotest chance of winning an automatic bid or receiving an at-large.
Big Sky (4): Southern Utah*, Weber State, Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington
Big South (2): Monmouth*, Kennesaw State
Colonial (4): James Madison*, Elon, Stony Brook, New Hampshire
Missouri Valley (5): North Dakota State*, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Illinois State, Western Illinois
Northeast (1): Duquesne*
Ohio Valley (1): Jacksonville State*
Patriot (1): Colgate*
Pioneer (1): San Diego*
Southern (2): Wofford*, Furman
Southland (3): Central Arkansas*, Sam Houston State, Nicholls
* League Champion and automatic bid
