Bracketology: Michigan falls off bracket, slips to first team out of field of 68 after loss to Illinois
The Wolverines' loss to the Illini was costly in the latest updated bracket from CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm
Monday's bracket only has some minor changes from Sunday's, although North Carolina and Michigan might disagree that the changes are minor.
Michigan fell out of the bracket following Sunday's loss at home to Illinois. UNC replaced the Wolverines and is the last team in the field of 68 for now. The Tar Heels are in action Monday against Syracuse.
Illinois and Ohio State swapped seeds after the Buckeyes fell at Maryland on Sunday. The Illini are a No. 4 seed and the Buckeyes a No. 5 seed.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
How to judge Houston
Houston, a No. 6 seed, also had a big win on Sunday, beating SMU 75-61. The Cougars are an interesting case for the NCAA Tournament selection committee. As of this morning, they are 24-4 overall, but do not have any Quad 1 wins. Houston is 0-3 against that group, with losses to Wisconsin, Alabama and SMU, all away from home. Their only other loss came at home to Memphis.
Since I started collecting data in 1994, the highest seed a team without a Quad 1 win has received is a No. 8 seed. That last occurred for Wisconsin-Green Bay in 1996. The highest seed for a team winless against Q1 in more recent times is a 10 for Georgia in 2015.
I think we would all be shocked if Houston were seeded anywhere near that low, even if the Cougars do not end up with any Quad 1 wins, but also do not be surprised if they are not seeded as high as their metrics might suggest.
You might notice that I am using the term "quadrant" to describe seasons long before the term was introduced. In fact, a team's opponents have always been listed in four groups on the team sheets, or at least for as long as I have been tracking them. There was no need for a term like "quadrant" initially because the division of the groups was simple to explain. Quad 1 was games against teams ranked 1-50 in the RPI, Quad 2 was teams 51-100, Quad 3 was teams 101-200 and Quad 4 was teams ranked 201 and higher.
The term "quadrant" was introduced in 2018, when the NCAA decided to add a home and road element to deciding which games went into each quadrant. There were three RPI groupings in each quadrant, depending on whether a game was home, road or neutral. In 2019, the NET replaced the RPI as the metric of choice for the NCAA and NET ranking groups have defined the quadrants since.
