Last Four In: Kentucky, Washington, Iowa State, Indiana
First Four Out: Baylor, Northwestern, Iowa, Wisconsin
Duke has found themselves outside the Top 16 National Seeds despite having an RPI in the top sixteen. Having a high RPI does not guarantee you a National Seed as others such as Texas Tech and Oregon are more deserving with an RPI more than sixteen. Texas Tech solidified themselves as a National Seed after beating Arizona in the Big 12 Championship. The RPI doesn’t do Oregon justice as they are a 47-7 team in the Big Ten with an RPI of 18 at the time of this bracket. Both Virginia Tech and Stanford hold onto the last remaining spots at #15 and #16.
Indiana is the Last Team In this season with a plethora of bubble teams this year that could easily be interchanged between at least two if not three of the First Four Out. Baylor, a team at 27-27 (.500) is the First Team Out with Northwestern behind them. Even though Baylor has the most Q1 wins out of all the bubble teams, there hasn’t been a .500 at-large team in the Tournament before and Baylor just isn’t impressive enough to be the first team. Nevada, BYU, Louisiana, and North Texas are the other bubble teams left out. Iowa State is the at-large team with the lowest RPI in the field at 65.
ACC: Clemson*, Florida State, Stanford, Duke, Virginia Tech, California, Georgia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina
American: USF*, Florida Atlantic
Big East: Connecticut
Big 12: Texas Tech*, Arizona, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, UCF, Iowa State
Big Ten: Michigan*, Oregon, UCLA, Ohio State, Washington, Nebraska, Indiana
SEC: Oklahoma*, Florida, LSU, Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn
A-10: St. Louis
America East: Binghamton
A-Sun: North Florida
Big Sky: Weber State
Big South: USC Upstate
Big West: UC Santa Barbara
CAA: Elon
C-USA: Liberty
Horizon: Robert Morris
Ivy: Brown
MAAC: Marist
MAC: Miami (Ohio)
MEAC: Howard
MVC: Belmont
MWC: San Diego State
NEC: St. Francis
OVC: Eastern Illinois
Patriot: Boston U
Southern: Mercer
Southland: SE Louisiana
Summit: Omaha
Sun Belt: Coastal Carolina
SWAC: Jackson State
WCC: Santa Clara
WAC: Grand Canyon
