Thursday, March 21, 2013

Realignment Makes For Some Weird Bracketology

This NCAA Tournament will be the last before a bunch of conference moves begin (with even more occurring down the road).  That means this NCAA Tournament could have some interesting little battles.

CINCINNATI-CREIGHTON:  These two schools play in the "second round".  Cincinnati will have the Big East logo on their back ... even though they won't be in the Big East after the season.  You know who will be?  Creighton.  Creighton joined Xavier and Butler to form a new Big East with the Catholic 7 while Cincinnati got left aside and will be in the Insert Name Here Conference. 

LOUISVILLE-DUKE:  These are the top two seeds in the Midwest Region and could see each other with a Final Four berth on the line.  Starting in 2014, these two will be conference-mates in the ACC.  They, along with North Carolina and Syracuse, will form a historically elite base for a historically great hoops league.  Adding in Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Miami and NC State (who are all also in this tournament) makes this the league to watch.

In fact, we could have three of the four regions with a soon-to-be All ACC regional final. The West could see Notre Dame vs Pittsburgh while the East could see Miami face either NC State or Syracuse.  Won't happen, but you never know.

In fact, you can make a region of just the 16 schools in this tournament that have either switched conferences or are about to switch leagues in the next two years. 

Here you go:

Louisville (ACC)
Notre Dame (ACC)
Pittsburgh (ACC)
Syracuse (ACC)
Butler (A-10 ... Big East)
VCU (A-10)
Temple (Big East)
Middle Tennessee (Conference USA)
Boise State (Mountain West)
Creighton (Big East)
Colorado (Pac-12)
Memphis (Old Big East)
Missouri (SEC)
Georgetown (Big East)
Marquette (Big East)
Villanova (Big East)

That doesn't even include San Diego State who aborted a planned move to move their basketball program from the MWC to the Big West. 

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