Welcome to my second bracketology article this season. March Madness is right around the corner, and most teams are starting to show their true colors as we gain more and more data daily. I will be here to update my projected bracket once a week, and then I'll provide more consistent updates once we get to March as the tournament approaches.
Now, you may wonder what the point of bracketology is, so let me tell you. Participating in this practice is a great way to identify better value for teams' betting futures. You may be high on a team, but an understanding of their seeding and potential opponents is critical, and I'm here in an attempt to give you the most accurate projections to determine just that.
Bracketology also gives you an early introduction to the potential Cinderella's of the field, allowing you to be a step ahead of everyone else, saving you valuable research time once the bracket is released.
Deebo Samuel on the Rams secondary:
I don’t even look in their eyes anymore. I just go out there and line up and you can just see them like, ‘Oh here comes Deebo.’
Before I get started, let me give you the rundown. For now, I'll simply provide my projected seeding for the field of 68. Moving forward, I will organize teams by their region, providing my projected bracket and region breakdown.
Before conference-champion auto-bids start to roll in, I will provide my tournament "locks." These are teams that have left no doubt that they are tournament-worthy, even though they may not have clinched a bid outright yet. I'll take a conservative approach here, however, because college basketball is like the Wild West sometimes, and any team's season can turn on a dime (see: Ohio State).
CMC isn't holding back pic.twitter.com/d25KGEz7th
— FantasyPros (@FantasyPros) February 8, 2023
Finally, I'm building this bracket based on today's standings rather than by projecting where it might be in the future. But that's enough rambling; let's get to the bracket.
Rams head coach Sean McVay on his takeaway from the Rams loss to the 49ers:
“They outplayed us. It doesn’t have anything to do with the history, they outplayed us in the second half. We didn’t make enough plays and there are things that we can all do collectively to be a better part of it, but that’s pretty much as plain and simple as it gets in my opinion.”
Locks
- Houston (22-2)
- Alabama (20-3)
- Purdue (22-2)
- Kansas (19-5)
- UCLA (19-4)
- Tennessee (19-4)
- Saint Mary's (21-4)
- Arizona (21-3)
- Texas (19-5)
- UConn (19-6)
As I said, I'm hesitant to guarantee many teams a tournament spot just yet. The teams in italics have been added this week. Tennessee ranks second in KenPom and despite their losses to Vanderbilt and Florida I'd be pretty surprised to see them fall off the map. Saint Mary's has come out of the woodworks after their Gonzaga victory but if you remember my last article I told you to take them at +6500 for a championship future – they now sit at +3000. Arizona continues winning games and Texas' strength of schedule is too good to fall off the map. UConn was close last time, and now I'm cautiously giving them the benefit of the doubt.
The championship futures I like right now: Creighton (+3500 on FanDuel) and NC State (+150000 on FanDuel). Creighton has been on the war path of late, winning six-straight games and ranking fourth in the nation since January 1st. I wouldn't exactly bet NC State but their odds should not be so low right now.
The Seeding
1 Seeds
- Purdue
- Houston
- Alabama
- Kansas
2 Seeds
- Arizona
- Tennessee
- Texas
- UCLA
3 Seeds
- Iowa State
- Virginia
- Baylor
- Xavier
4 Seeds
- Gonzaga
- UConn
- Saint Mary's
- Marquette
5 Seeds
- Arkansas
- TCU
- Kansas State
- Rutgers
6 Seeds
- Indiana
- Auburn
- Providence
- Miami (FL)
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Ryan Coleman is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Ryan, check out his archive.