Friday's bracket is up and reflects how sometimes your team moves because of what you did, but they can also move simply because of what other teams did.
Nobody moved off the top line of the bracket in a rare week of stability, but there was some movement right below that. Clemson and West Virginia lost this week to Virginia and TCU respectively and ended up dropping down from No. 2 to a No. 3 seeds. That allowed Auburn and Oklahoma to move up. The Sooners certainly helped their own cause with a huge win over fellow No. 2 Kansas, but while Auburn picked up a nice road win at Missouri, that probably wouldn't have moved the Tigers up by itself.
A little further down, Rhode Island dropped a couple of lines – although only five places on the S-Curve, from 24 to 29 – in part because of wins by Miami and TCU that jumped those teams ahead, and in part because their loss to Nevada looks a little worse after the Wolfpack lost to Wyoming.
Kansas State dropped out because of a re-evaluation. They should not have been in Monday's bracket to begin with. The Wildcats have one of the 20 worst non-conference schedules in Division I. Teams get left out almost every season primarily because of a putrid non-conference slate. On top of that, KSU lost one of those games, at home to Tulsa, which is its only bad loss. Kansas State is going to have to do more than have a couple of home wins over competitive teams to make up for that. A lot more.
Everyone is looking forward to the clash between Virginia and Duke this weekend, as they should, but flying under the radar a bit is the SEC-Big 12 challenge. Part of the reason for that is the lack of quality matchups. That's the risk of putting them together before the season, which is what has to happen. However, Auburn, the surprise leader of the SEC, isn't even participating. Tennessee, which was picked to finish in the bottom four, has a game with Iowa State, which was also picked near the bottom of its league. Unfortunately for the better-than-expected Vols, they miss out on a chance for a potential resume building game. Texas A&M at 100 percent would have been a good matchup for Kansas, but not as they are now. TCU drew disappointing Vanderbilt.
In the end, there are four games with potential bracket impact, highlighted by Kentucky at West Virginia. That's a game the Wildcats really could use to fill a hole in its tournament resume, which lacks a win of any quality away from home. South Carolina hosts Texas Tech and looks to add another quality win to its resume. Oklahoma travels to Alabama, which would be better if it was played on the gridiron, but the Crimson Tide will not get a better chance to impress the committee than it can against the Sooners. Finally, Georgia visits Kansas State in a game between teams that may be competing for a spot in the bracket in March.