Bracketology: Four weeks to go

And so it begins again.

This year's Bracketology series will, admittedly, be a little less wild and crazy. The rules and regulations (PDF) state, "When there are 2 teams from the same Sport Conference they shall be placed on opposite sides of the draw." Since we're going to have two teams from three conferences, it requires us to narrow down our possibilities. (Some of us, at least ... I forgot to inform all the panelists of this rule, as you'll see.)

(They waived this rule for a conference that has three teams at the Final 8, though keen students of mathematics will know they have no choice but to waive it, lest they run afoul of the pigeonhole principle. That wasn't a pun.)

Our panel, eight strong this week, includes resident roundball 'riters Brian Decker, Cam Charron, and Andrew Bucholtz, as well as guest panelists in the form of Ray Bala, Wayne Thomas, Dale Stevens, and Alexandre Tourigny. (Click through to see our picks.)

We have all chosen the same three Canada West teams--which means we all gave the at-large berth to the West. We have all chosen Carleton for the 1- or 2-seed, and tapped Cape Breton to come out on top in the AUS. Seven of the eight of us chose Lakehead to finish second in the OUA; the Great Group of Dudes [Teammates] will be knocking on Can Ball Ray's door about that one...

And some of us even put the QUBL winner higher than 8th!

Here are the panel's first stabs at the Final 8 seedings (you'll have to click to embiggen, because after three years on this blog I still can't embed images properly):


Any pithy comments we have to share about our ballots will come in the comments, where you are free to join us in debate.
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7 comments:

  1. When we did a dry run three weeks ago, I was bearish on the Huskies, worried about their strength-of-schedule rating, but since then they've won five of six against some decent teams. I also had Laurier in there but that's looking less likely now.

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  2. Wow those rules and regulations are enough to make the eyes fall out and roll around, begging to be given the coup de grace...

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  3. Some didn't read rules have Carleton and Lakehead on same side of draw.
    There also is a possibility of 3 OUA team should Carleton loose in final four first round.

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  4. @Tybalt: Yeah. Worrying about conference matchups in the second round is a bit much, in my mind; I see the idea, but I think the resulting forced seedings have more of a disruptive effect than an all-one-conference semifinal would.

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  5. @resinnin: That's on me, not the ones who have Carleton/Lakehead together. I went back and forth on whether to require the ballots to meet those rules, because they are kind of restrictive, but I eventually decided we should follow CIS regulations. Problem was I had already asked for, and received, some ballots, so anyone who sent their ballots in before I changed my mind was left alone. The rest had to make changes.

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  6. Carleton at #2.

    Why does Ray Bala think anyone in the OUA is capable of knocking off the Ravens? Based on his list, that team looks like Toronto. I can't think of a less likely occurrence.

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  7. 1. Carleton
    8. Concordia

    4. Cape Breton
    5. Trinity Western

    3. Saskatchewan
    6. St.FX

    2. UBC
    7. Toronto

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