Alphabetical list of the 68 teams on pace for March Madness

Is your college one of the 68 on pace to be invited to March Madness in eight weeks? Seven Big Ten teams are based on their projected RPIs, topping the Big East, Big 12 and Mountain West with six each. Syracuse won the battle of the Big East’s two projected No. 1 seeds (pictured).  In this first of two pieces we provide an alphabetical list of the teams on pace to be on the Selection Sunday brackets. A follow-up story will show the top three players on each team to show who has the best path to the Sweet 16.

UCLA, Kentucky and others are very likely to rise through the ranks to get higher seeds by Selection Sunday, but for now basing the selections just on results to date, here are the 68 and where they would be seeded.  For those who want to know more about how these selections are made, we break down these headings in this table below: 

Team	W-L	SOS	RPI	Seed	Conf	Tournament Site
Akron	22-6	146	52	13	MAC	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21
Arizona	27-3	18	3	1	P12	San Jose CA 3/21
Baylor	19-10	61	53	13	B12	1st 4 then Kansas City 3/22 (2nd)
Belmont	22-5	88	16	4	OVC	Kansas City 3/22
Boise St.	18-10	54	48	12	MWC	Kansas City 3/22 (2nd)
Brigham Young	22-8	83	43	11	WCC	Lexington KY 3/21 (2nd)
Bryant	22-7	280	102	15	NEC	Austin, TX 3/22 (2nd)
Bucknell	24-5	171	41	10	Pat	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21 (2nd)
Butler	24-6	71	17	5	A10	Kansas City 3/22
Charleston Southern	15-9	302	177	16	BSth	1st 4 then Lexington KY 3/21
Cincinnati	23-8	14	18	5	BE	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21
Colorado	19-11	11	38	10	P12	Austin, TX 3/22 (2nd)
Colorado St.	22-7	38	14	4	MWC	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21
Creighton	26-4	119	22	6	MVC	San Jose CA 3/21 (2nd)
Davidson	19-9	236	118	16	SC	Philadelphia 3/22 (2nd)
Detroit	17-10	114	60	14	Horz	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21 (2nd)
Duke	28-3	1	1	1	ACC	Philadelphia 3/22
Florida	27-3	41	5	2	SEC	Austin, TX 3/22
Florida Gulf Coast	18-11	217	121	16	ASun	San Jose CA 3/21
George Mason	19-11	166	114	15	CAA	Austin, TX 3/22
Gonzaga	26-4	67	11	3	WCC	San Jose CA 3/21 (2nd)
Harvard	18-9	148	80	14	Ivy	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21
Illinois	18-13	8	49	12	B10	1st 4 then Salt Lake City, UT 3/21
Indiana	25-6	10	9	3	B10	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21
Iona	19-10	170	90	15	MAAC	Dayton, OH 3/22
Iowa St.	22-9	49	36	9	B12	Philadelphia 3/22 (2nd)
Kansas	27-4	24	6	2	B12	Austin, TX 3/22 (2nd)
Kansas St.	22-8	48	31	8	B12	Lexington KY 3/21
Kentucky	22-9	62	45	11	SEC	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21 (2nd)
La Salle	19-10	91	55	13	A10	1st 4 then Kansas City 3/22 (2nd)
Louisiana Tech	23-7	185	54	13	WAC	Dayton, OH 3/22 (2nd)
Louisville	27-4	3	2	1	BE	Lexington KY 3/21
Marquette	20-10	19	28	7	BE	Austin, TX 3/22
Memphis	24-7	81	34	9	CUSA	Lexington KY 3/21
Miami FL	23-7	4	12	3	ACC	Lexington KY 3/21 (2nd)
Michigan	26-4	28	7	2	B10	Dayton, OH 3/22
Michigan St.	21-9	5	19	5	B10	Kansas City 3/22 (2nd)
Middle Tennessee	26-5	130	26	7	SB	Dayton, OH 3/22
Minnesota	24-7	2	8	2	B10	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21 (2nd)
Mississippi	26-5	125	32	8	SEC	Philadelphia 3/22
Missouri	22-9	42	27	7	SEC	Austin, TX 3/22 (2nd)
Nevada Las Vegas	22-8	32	23	6	MWC	Lexington KY 3/21 (2nd)
New Mexico	24-7	6	10	3	MWC	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21 (2nd)
North Carolina	18-12	12	44	11	ACC	San Jose CA 3/21 (2nd)
North Carolina Central	18-9	285	141	16	MEAC	1st 4 then Philadelphia 3/22
North Carolina St.	23-8	35	21	6	ACC	Salt Lake City, UT 3/21 (2nd)
North Dakota St.	22-5	208	51	13	Sum	Kansas City 3/22
Notre Dame	22-9	53	42	11	BE	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21
Ohio St.	21-9	9	20	5	B10	Dayton, OH 3/22 (2nd)
Oklahoma	20-10	15	33	9	B12	Philadelphia 3/22
Oklahoma St.	21-9	22	25	7	B12	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21 (2nd)
Oregon	25-6	110	29	8	P12	Philadelphia 3/22 (2nd)
Pacific	16-12	150	125	16	BW	1st 4 then Lexington KY 3/21
Pittsburgh	24-7	70	37	10	BE	Dayton, OH 3/22
San Diego St.	19-9	29	35	9	MWC	San Jose CA 3/21
Southern	20-7	338	145	16	SWAC	1st 4 then Philadelphia 3/22
Southern Mississippi	22-7	97	30	8	CUSA	San Jose CA 3/21
St. Mary’s	22-7	129	47	12	WCC	Kansas City 3/22
Stephen F. Austin	21-3	310	62	14	Slnd	San Jose CA 3/21 (2nd)
Stony Brook	21-7	245	78	14	AE	Lexington KY 3/21 (2nd)
Syracuse	27-4	13	4	1	BE	Philadelphia 3/22 (2nd)
Temple	20-10	65	50	12	A10	1st 4 then Salt Lake City, UT 3/21
UCLA	22-9	58	46	12	P12	Dayton, OH 3/22 (2nd)
Virginia Commonwealth	26-5	55	13	4	A10	Dayton, OH 3/22 (2nd)
Weber St.	21-5	291	85	15	BSky	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21 (2nd)
Wichita St.	25-5	93	15	4	MVC	Kansas City 3/22 (2nd)
Wisconsin	21-10	40	40	10	B10	Austin, TX 3/22
Wyoming	21-7	47	24	6	MWC	Auburn Hills, MI 3/21

After being on the backburner throughout the NFL and college football season, college basketball takes center stage for two months outside of one huge event (the Superbowl).  This post walks through who is in and out right now, and the follow-up piece will run through the best three players on each of these 68 teams to determine who has the best path to advance in your brackets.

W-L: We start with the PROJECTED win-loss record based on how the team has played so far, as measured by Forecast RPI.  Akron projects to finish 22-6, while Arizona projects to finish 27-3.

SOS: Next we look at how hard it was to win those games.  Akron played only the 146th toughest Strength of Schedule, while Arizona played the 18th toughest (of 347 Division 1) teams.

RPI:  Those numbers plus how many games were played at home vs. on the road or at neutral sites give a good indication of how high the Ratings Percentage Index will be for each team.  The actual equation is a team’s record, the opponents’ records, and the opponents’ opponents’ records, but the key fact to understand is that when the home team wins a game they are only credited with 0.6 wins and the away team that lost only is blamed for 0.6 losses.  The real changes in RPI occur when a team wins on the road, for which they get 1.4 wins.  So if a team were to go 10-20 playing all road games they would be considered a 14-12 team, whereas if another team were to go 20-10 while playing all home games they would be considered not as good at 12-14.

Seed: In other sports the RPI determines who makes the tournament and what their Seed is (from 1 to 16).  In basketball, the Selection Committee starts with this order and makes adjustments for which teams are hotter, have significant road wins, may have played a portion of the season with a key player injured etc. In theory, the best No. 1 seed starts by playing the worst No. 16 seed (after a play-in game), etc., but teams are not supposed to meet conference foes in the first two rounds.

Based on the projected RPI based on games played through Sunday we had to switch the order for #10 seeds Pittsburgh and Wisconsin, #3 seeds New Mexico and Miami, #5 seeds Michigan State and Cincinnati, as well as switching the playin games so that A10 member Temple did not face the last team in La Salle (also of the A10).

Tournament Site: Every 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-seed basically has a pod of three other teams (or four other teams if there is a play-in game) in one city.  There are eight teams that must first go to a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio on March 19 or 20 and win to get to the city indicated under “tournament site”.  So if you look at the third, fourth and fifth teams listed on the table, Belmont would go to Kansas City as part of one group, while Boise State would also go to Kansas City as part of a completely unrelated “2nd group.”  Baylor would have to play a “1st 4” game in Dayton on March 20 to earn the right to go to Kansas City to join Boise State’s group.
Use this table as a key to find your team in the second piece which is broken down by tournament site.