Thursday, February 26, 2026

February 26th 2026 Bracketology **Updated 12:30pm ET**

 Seed Power Power

1 1 * Duke

1 2 * Michigan

1 3 * Arizona

1 4 * UConn

2 5 Purdue

2 6 Houston

2 7 * Florida

2 8 Iowa State

3 9 Illinois

3 10 Nebraska

3 11 * Gonzaga

3 12 Kansas

4 13 Texas Tech

4 14 Michigan St

4 15 Virginia

4 16 Alabama

5 17 Vanderbilt

5 18 Arkansas

5 19 North Carolina

5 20 Tennessee

6 21 Louisville

6 22 St. John's

6 23 BYU

6 24 Villanova

7 25 Wisconsin

7 26 Iowa

7 27 * Utah St

7 28 NC State

8 29 UCF

8 30 * Saint Louis

8 31 Kentucky

8 32 Miami

9 33 Clemson

9 34 St. Mary's

9 35 SMU

9 36 UCLA

10 37 * Miami-OH

10 38 Texas A&M

10 39 Georgia

10 40 Missouri

11 41 Texas

11 42 Santa Clara

11a 43 Auburn

11b 44 Ohio State

11c 45 California

11d 46 TCU

12 47 * South Florida

12 48 * Belmont

12 49 * Yale

12 50 * Stephen F. Austin

13 51 * High Point

13 52 * Liberty

13 53 * UNCW

13 54 * Hawai'i

14 55 * North Dakota St

14 56 * Navy

14 57 * Austin Peay

14 58 * Portland St

15 59 * Troy

15 60 * East Tenn St

15 61 * Wright St

15 62 * Merrimack

16 63 *Utah Tech

16 64 * Howard

16a 65 * Long Island

16a 66 * UMBC

16a 67 * Bethune Cookman

16a 68 *Morehead St

Last Four In: TCU, California, Ohio St., Auburn

First Four Out: Indiana, San Diego St., New Mexico, Virginia Tech

Next Four Out: VCU, USC, Seton Hall, Oklahoma St.

Notes:

- The two biggest results from bubble land last night was California picking up a Q2 win over SMU and San Diego St picking up a Q1 win over Utah State. This was enough for me to slide California into my field and SDSU up to the 2nd team out. Indiana fell out. Indiana's biggest issue is they only have 2 Q1 wins, and 2 Q2 wins, and their Q1/Q2/Q3 record is 10-12. That is pretty mediocre. Their home win over Purdue is a big feather in the cap. They also have pretty good predictive metrics, TOR=30, KenPom=43, but their resume metrics, which is the biggest metric to get you into the field, are not great, WAB=49, SOR=47. TCU has a WAB=45,SOR=44, California 43/46, Ohio St. 46/45, Auburn 42/41, Santa Clara 41/43 for comparison. The good news for teams like Indiana, power 4 schools in strong conferences, is that they still have opportunities to change things. Indiana finishes with Q1 vs Michigan St., Q2 vs Minnesota, Q1@ Ohio St in a bubble buster game. A 2-1 finish and avoiding a bad loss in the B1G tourny may be enough, 1-2 probably not.

- For SDSU, I am valuing their resume above MWC peer New Mexico but not yet over Indiana or the bottom few teams in the bracket. Their resume metrics are worse than the teams above, SOR=55, WAB=53 and nothing else about their resume really stands out to overcome that. They have enough quality wins 2Q1, 5 Q2 and only one bad loss. But they need a strong finish to move in. Last night was a good start and they have two more Q1 opportunities in a row,  @ New Mexico and @ Boise State, before a Q3 game at home vs UNLV to finish the season. They may need to run the table. A 2-1 finish would likely have the on the edge heading into the MWC tournament.

- No real bubble games tonight or tomorrow, although of course Miami Oh needs to keep winning to feel secure and they play tomorrow @WMU in a must not lose game.


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