Our NIT Bracketology is updated, and we have a few updates to go with its updated state:
First, our First Four Out and information on automatic bids/exempt bids can now be found on the NIT Bracketology page itself, down below the bracket.
Second, this will hopefully be the last edition of bracketology to use our “lite” model. We’ve started rebuilding the full model for this season, with our hope being to have that ready on Friday.
Third, we had a little bubble movement over the weekend. As always, our bracketology is predictive and not reflective, so this might not match the industry’s take, but we saw Wake Forest move up over the projected NCAAT/NIT cut line, sending San Diego State back our way. Elsewhere, Oregon State and Penn State dropped out of our projection, sending us Stanford and a fifth automatic bid in their stead.
This is a little inside baseball, but one thing to watch for with the NIT and that College Basketball Crown tournament Fox Sports is putting on: What do the Mountain West teams do?
If there’s anyone for whom the College Basketball Crown makes sense, it’s the Mountain West. They’re the only conference who routinely sends big crowds to Las Vegas for their conference tournament. They’re small enough in terms of notoriety that they’d be a surprise to see opt out of any postseason play. They’re one of the few conferences not aligned with either ESPN or Fox Sports, though negotiations for the New Pac-12 are ongoing. Basically, they’re an enigma, and if we don’t get a clear read elsewhere, they might be a good litmus test for how the NIT and CBC compare in their behind-the-scenes power struggle.
More bracketology on Friday, either from the lite model or the full model. See you there.
**
