NCAA bracketology roundup: Badgers making more noise after big win over Michigan
As the college basketball season heats up, FOX Sports Wisconsin will round up what experts are saying about the chances for Wisconsin to make the NCAA tournament in March. This is the second edition of the 2019 bracket roundup.
A win over then-No. 2 Michigan last weekend wasn’t enough to get Wisconsin back into the latest AP Top 25 poll on Monday, but the Badgers did collect the fifth-most votes among unranked teams.
And, perhaps more importantly, the experts (and non-experts) still love the Badgers’ chances in the Big Dance.
Bracket Matrix is a site that compiles 86 different brackets, ranging from writers at Sports Illustrated and ESPN to bloggers for SB Nation and everything in between. Wisconsin was included on all 86 of the brackets, which should come as no surprise after the Badgers handed the second-ranked Wolverines their first loss of the season last week.
One blog dubbed “Ruckles Bracketology,” a self-proclaimed top-20 bracket in the nation, lists the Badgers as high as a No. 3 seed. But the Badgers jump all the way back to a 10 seed according to the TRMD Index, a blog dedicated to college basketball.
Fittingly, the average score among all 86 rankings on Bracket Matrix comes out right smack in the middle of those two projections -- a No. 6 seed. The three other predicted six seeds are Oklahoma and conference rivals Purdue and Iowa.
Notable brackets by SB Nation, Sports Illustrated and Yale Undergraduates seem to favor Wisconsin a bit more, slotting Greg Gard’s team as a fifth seed.
A rather insane 10 (yes, TEN) teams from the Big Ten are currently in Bracket Matrix’s field of 68 teams, led by Michigan State (No. 1 seed), Michigan (No. 2) and Maryland (No. 3). Northwestern is the only team in the conference to own a winning overall record and not be currently included. For reference, the ACC landed a record nine teams in the tournament the past two seasons.
Take a look at which tournament seed 12 big-name brackets have assigned to the Badgers below:
| BRACKET | SEED |
| SB Nation | 5 |
| Yale Undergraduates | 5 |
| Sports Illustrated | 5 |
| Watch Stadium | 6 |
| Bleacher Report | 6 |
| Washington Post | 6 |
| ESPN | 6 |
| Haslametrics | 7 |
| FOX | 7 |
| CBS | 8 |
| NCAA.com (Katz) | 8 |
| TeamRankings.com | 8 |
