2025 Bracketology

[PointWarrior]

so, the tourney starts next week, right? No reason to play the games as the guy who lives in a cave has already figured out the season before rosters are even finalized.

You can at least start making travel plans for the second weekend in advance.

[brewcity77]

so, the tourney starts next week, right? No reason to play the games as the guy who lives in a cave has already figured out the season before rosters are even finalized.

Yeah, I'm about as connected to Bracketology as one can be and still discuss this with other bracket nerds deep into summer, but this thread is completely useless until late December or early January.

[Viper]

so, the tourney starts next week, right? No reason to play the games as the guy who lives in a cave has already figured out the season before rosters are even finalized.

200% 👍. I guess Lunardi gives espn.com some clicks, otherwise his take is meaningless until late February.

[wadesworld]

Who cares?

Get rid of recruiting rankings until kids are into their senior high school seasons, because things change over the years right?  So they're pointless early, I guess.

Get rid of polls because they're pointless early in the year and don't really matter for anything at the end of the day.

Get rid of KenPom and predictive rankings until half way through conference season.

Heck, just invite 4 one seeds to the Tournament and let them duke it out for a title.

It's entertainment.  People complain about college football giving the shaft to every other college sports, and then complain that college basketball is throwing out ultimately useless stuff to entertain college basketball fans during the summer, after the portal is closed and the date to withdraw from the NBA Draft.

[Uncle Rico]

Who cares?

Get rid of recruiting rankings until kids are into their senior high school seasons, because things change over the years right?  So they're pointless early, I guess.

Get rid of polls because they're pointless early in the year and don't really matter for anything at the end of the day.

Get rid of KenPom and predictive rankings until half way through conference season.

Heck, just invite 4 one seeds to the Tournament and let them duke it out for a title.

It's entertainment.  People complain about college football giving the shaft to every other college sports, and then complain that college basketball is throwing out ultimately useless stuff to entertain college basketball fans during the summer, after the portal is closed and the date to withdraw from the NBA Draft.

As long as it's not Jerry Palm

[MarquetteMike1977]

Who cares?

Get rid of recruiting rankings until kids are into their senior high school seasons, because things change over the years right?  So they're pointless early, I guess.

Get rid of polls because they're pointless early in the year and don't really matter for anything at the end of the day.

Get rid of KenPom and predictive rankings until half way through conference season.

Heck, just invite 4 one seeds to the Tournament and let them duke it out for a title.

It's entertainment.  People complain about college football giving the shaft to every other college sports, and then complain that college basketball is throwing out ultimately useless stuff to entertain college basketball fans during the summer, after the portal is closed and the date to withdraw from the NBA Draft.

Agree

[Elonsmusk]

Yeah, I'm about as connected to Bracketology as one can be and still discuss this with other bracket nerds deep into summer, but this thread is completely useless until late December or early January.

Hot take.  Prophetic in fact.

[PointWarrior]

Who cares?

Get rid of recruiting rankings until kids are into their senior high school seasons, because things change over the years right?  So they're pointless early, I guess.

Get rid of polls because they're pointless early in the year and don't really matter for anything at the end of the day.

Get rid of KenPom and predictive rankings until half way through conference season.

Heck, just invite 4 one seeds to the Tournament and let them duke it out for a title.

It's entertainment.  People complain about college football giving the shaft to every other college sports, and then complain that college basketball is throwing out ultimately useless stuff to entertain college basketball fans during the summer, after the portal is closed and the date to withdraw from the NBA Draft.

I am good with all your suggestions if it will stop discussion of NCAA seeding prior to the February prior to the tourney.   and mock drafts, kill them too...

[MarquetteMike1977]

Today Joe Lunardi ESPN on the front NCAA page has Marquette as a #7 Seed playing #10 seed Kansas State in Raleigh. With the winner playing the winner of # 2 Seed North Carolina  versus #15 Seed Weber State in the West San Francisco Region

True Lunardi is ESPN which is worse than FOX.  And agree he is in his basement. But Lunardi has resources and historically is fairly accurate over the years and paints about as solid  a picture as you can at this time of year.

[MUbiz]

Lunardi has resources and historically is fairly accurate over the years and paints about as solid  a picture as you can at this time of year.

Lunardi is one of the more wrong bracketgoligsts out there - he finished 118/179 last year and has not broke top 100 in last 5 years.  http://bracketmatrix.com/rankings.html

[MarquetteMike1977]

Viper you texted me this

That's nice fur MU, but I'm quickly losing interest in college sports. I don't agree with paying players.
Full scholarship, room/board, books, tutors, first class travel, swag...AND get paid? Boo. 
D-1 college basketball is now officially a professional minor league along with the GLeague, Australia and European leagues to the NBA.  If players are getting paid, why should they get free tuition too?

[MarquetteMike1977]

Lunardi is one of the more wrong bracketgoligsts out there - he finished 118/179 last year and has not broke top 100 in last 5 years.  http://bracketmatrix.com/rankings.html

I do find it comforting Lunardi picks Marquette as a #7 Seed after losing Tyler and Oso. And Lunardi has been and is front page news for about 3 decades. But Thank You Wow did not know Lunardi was that off the last 5 Years.

[BrewCity83]

Marquette will better than a 7 seed this year.  Book it.

[MUbiz]

I do find it comforting Lunardi picks Marquette as a #7 Seed after losing Tyler and Oso. And Lunardi has been and is front page news for about 3 decades. But Thank You Wow did not know Lunardi was that off the last 5 Years.

I am speculating, but since Lunardi's book came out in 2020ish and he did really well on it, he has kinda mailed it in since then.

I follow our own Alan Bykowski, bauertology, T3 Bracketoglogy on X (twitter) to name a few. Those guys are really spot on and give sound explanations as to why.

[Its DJOver]

Today Joe Lunardi ESPN on the front NCAA page has Marquette as a #7 Seed playing #10 seed Kansas State in Raleigh. With the winner playing the winner of # 2 Seed North Carolina  versus #15 Seed Weber State in the West San Francisco Region

True Lunardi is ESPN which is worse than FOX.  And agree he is in his basement. But Lunardi has resources and historically is fairly accurate over the years and paints about as solid  a picture as you can at this time of year.

There's a reason the people that are actually good at bracketology don't have any August brackets posted. "At this time of year" nobody knows anything.  Anything posted before January 1st is not using enough actual data to be meaningful.

I would imagine there's something in Lunardi's contract that says he has to publish "x" so often, which is why he'll update his meaningless July bracket with his meaningless August bracket.

[brewcity77]

Today Joe Lunardi ESPN on the front NCAA page has Marquette as a #7 Seed playing #10 seed Kansas State in Raleigh. With the winner playing the winner of # 2 Seed North Carolina  versus #15 Seed Weber State in the West San Francisco Region

True Lunardi is ESPN which is worse than FOX.  And agree he is in his basement. But Lunardi has resources and historically is fairly accurate over the years and paints about as solid  a picture as you can at this time of year.

Historically, he's not very accurate, and it's not possible to paint a solid picture this time of year. It's just clickbait.

[We R Final Four]

Viper you texted me this

That's nice fur MU, but I'm quickly losing interest in college sports. I don't agree with paying players.
Full scholarship, room/board, books, tutors, first class travel, swag...AND get paid? Boo. 
D-1 college basketball is now officially a professional minor league along with the GLeague, Australia and European leagues to the NBA.  If players are getting paid, why should they get free tuition too?

Begs the question.....how much are the players getting paid?
No one knows exactly.
If Al, for example, is getting $40K/year from MUBB, but then he is asked to pay his own tuition???  He needs to come up with the difference?

[Viper]

Begs the question.....how much are the players getting paid?
No one knows exactly.
If Al, for example, is getting $40K/year from MUBB, but then he is asked to pay his own tuition???  He needs to come up with the difference?

I believe this was debated last year somewhere on Scoop. Regardless, it's about decisions decisions. What's a 4-yr MU education cost these days, $250,000? More? Less? Take the money or take the ride.

[MUDPT]

Historically, he's not very accurate, and it's not possible to paint a solid picture this time of year. It's just clickbait.

Brew, any idea how much the committee is going to use WAB this season or just pure speculation at this point?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I believe this was debated last year somewhere on Scoop. Regardless, it's about decisions decisions. What's a 4-yr MU education cost these days, $250,000? More? Less? Take the money or take the ride.

But the market says the deserve both.  You aren't a commie are you?

[WhiteTrash]

Bracketology = Power Rankings = What Does Your Favorite TV Star From The '80s Look Like Now. Click bait; nothing more, nothing less.

[muwarrior69]

But the market says the deserve both.  You aren't a commie are you?

What market? The NCAA requires one and now allows the other because the law says they cannot prevent it.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

What market? The NCAA requires one and now allows the other because the law says they cannot prevent it.

You seriously are asking "what market?" The market is that the college offers a full cost-of-attendance scholarship and their NIL earnings are unrestricted - some will obviously make more than others depending on where they go to school, how good they are, etc.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Viper you texted me this

That's nice fur MU, but I'm quickly losing interest in college sports. I don't agree with paying players.
Full scholarship, room/board, books, tutors, first class travel, swag...AND get paid? Boo. 
D-1 college basketball is now officially a professional minor league along with the GLeague, Australia and European leagues to the NBA.  If players are getting paid, why should they get free tuition too?

Why does anyone care?

[brewcity77]

Brew, any idea how much the committee is going to use WAB this season or just pure speculation at this point?

I'm guessing they'll just use it as a ranking equally with the other predictive metrics. Where I think it might have made a difference last year was for Indiana State. Their biggest weakness last year was both resume metrics had them at 40, but in WAB they were at 28. I felt they deserved inclusion at a 40.0 resume average, but if you add in WAB, their resume average of 36.0 would've been really hard to keep out.

I doubt it will influence seeding much, but it could help mid-majors that schedule tough. The two highest WAB teams to be left out were ISU and Princeton. That said, history has made me cautious in overestimating the Selection Committee's affinity for including mid-majors.