Bracketology Breakdown
Last Four In: South Dakota State, Rhode Island, Mercer, Monmouth
First Five+ Out: William & Mary, Stephen F. Austin, Eastern Kentucky, Chattanooga, Virginia Military, plus the group of 5-5 extremes including: Northern Iowa, Maine, Jacksonville State, Weber State
This is going to be a relative short glance into this week’s bracketology. I’m going to devote the end of the weekend and whatever it takes on Monday to really go in depth. So be looking for the Bracketology Bonus on Monday evening.
There were three bids that were locked in on Saturday. Congratulations to Sam Houston(AQ7), Tennessee-Martin(Ohio Valley) and Holy Cross(Patriot). All your tickets are punched and you’ll be playing after next week’s final slate of regular season games.
Twelve other teams have already reached eight overall victories meaning they’re all but shoe-ins for, at least, at-large bids. They include: Montana State, Sacramento State, Eastern Washington, UC-Davis, Montana, Kennesaw State, James Madison, Villanova, North Dakota State, East Tennessee State, Incarnate Word and Southeastern Louisiana. From those twelve listed here, four and up to six automatic bids will be claimed. All this material will be covered in the Bonus edition.
As for pairings in this week’s Bracketology, teams within the current bracket all won and lost in very smooth sections, so mass movement was minimal. The big movers were the few teams who actually lost. The one, potentially, hurt the most was South Dakota State. Once seen as the best team in the entire Subdivision, they’ve lost three games now and only have six Division I victories. One of those is FBS Colorado State, which carries significant weight, but a loss in Week 12 would put them eerily close to the cut line. Two others, just moving into this weekend’s edition, Mercer and Monmouth, jump in with huge wins this week. However, they play massive games for automatic bids next week and it’s hard to say if they have enough resume to keep their spots with one more loss. Again, look to the Bonus edition to address these scenarios.
Bids By Conference
AQ7 (1): #Sam Houston State
Big Sky (5): *Montana State, Sacramento State, Eastern Washington, UC-Davis, Montana
Big South (2): *Kennesaw State, Monmouth
Colonial (3): *Villanova, James Madison, Rhode Island
Missouri Valley (5): *North Dakota State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois, South Dakota, South Dakota State
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): #Tennessee-Martin
Patriot (1): #Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (2): *East Tennessee State, Mercer
Southland (2): *Incarnate Word, Southeastern Louisiana
# denotes a conference’s clinched automatic qualifier
* denotes projected conference’s automatic qualifier
