Last Four In: Southern Illinois, Elon, North Dakota, New Hampshire
First Four Out: Villanova, Fordham, Rhode Island, Richmond
Almost no change in the top of the bracket this week as the top fourteen teams in my overall seeding either won or were idle this week. I did make a couple of revisions, however.
First, I made an adjustment in the middle seeds. I see Weber State, Sacramento State and Delaware all on a pretty even level. All are undefeated with FBS wins, However, Sacramento State and Weber State’s victories were a little more dominant. So basically, I swapped Sac State and Delaware at #4 and #6 and left Weber State at #5.
Second, I did a flip-flop at the bottom of the seeds. I moved Holy Cross on the seed lines, from just off to #7. They replace Montana State, who’s done nothing to deserve the drop, they just don’t deserve a seed more than Holy Cross or Incarnate Word, the current #8. MSU and UIW are so close, I can see the argument the other way. My thinking is Incarnate Word has an FBS win, Montana State does not. Incarnate Word has a huge win over Southern Illinois in their pocket, Montana State’s best win is against a one-win team or two-win Morehead State.
The bottom of the tree sees the typical in-and-out swapping like most weeks. The big one was Elon, who directly took Richmond’s spot. Three of the four just outside are from the Colonial and have this next week off. Two of them, Villanova and Richmond, play each other after their byes. The other, Rhode Island, they play Elon.
Bids By Conference
**Atlantic Sun (2): *Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky
Big Sky (4): *Montana, Sacramento State, Weber State, Montana State
Big South (1): *Campbell
Colonial (4): *Delaware, William & Mary, Elon, New Hampshire
Missouri Valley (4): *North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, North Dakota
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): *Southeast Missouri
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (3): *Chattanooga, Samford, Mercer
Southland (2): *Southeastern Louisiana, Incarnate Word
**Western (0):
* denotes an automatic qualifier
** one of the champions between the Atlantic Sun and Western combined, will also receive an automatic bid
