B1G DISAPPOINTMENT, U.S.A. — The following is Road to Selection Sunday‘s final 2015 look at the projected NCAA Tournament field, before the field really starts to take shape with the start of conference play across the country. For the Big Ten, which currently has only five teams projected into the bracket, that conference season begins Dec. 29 when Purdue @ Wisconsin (6 p.m.) and Michigan State @ Iowa (8 p.m.) play a doubleheader on the Big Ten Network.
Despite beating the ACC 8-6 in the ACC/B1G Challenge, the B1G thus far has been something of a disappointment in 2015-16. The conference is a dead-even .500 (24-24) in head-to-head matchups vs. the other Power 6 conferences, percentage-wise ranking behind the Big XII (18-12, 60%), Big East (25-17, 59.5%), and ACC (28-24, 53.8%). The B1G is tied with the Pac 12 (13-13, 50%), and leads only the dreadful SEC (13-31, 29.5%).
There’s still plenty of time for the B1G to add to its bid total. The conference usually can count on six or seven tourney bids, but this season it’s going to take teams the likes of Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern, and Wisconsin to improve their stock between now and March 13 (Selection Sunday). For now, of those four schools, RTSS has only Indiana (just barely) in the tournament field.
Here’s the rest. An * denotes the current conference leader and/or team with the best RPI in a multiple-bid conference.
FIELD OF 68 PROJECTION (December 21)
America East (1): Albany
American (2): Cincinnati, *Tulsa
ACC (7): Duke, Louisville, Miami, *North Carolina, Pitt, Virginia, Wake Forest
Atlantic Sun (1): NJIT
Atlantic 10 (2): *Dayton, George Washington
Big East (5): Butler, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, *Xavier
Big Sky (1): Idaho
Big South (1): High Point
B1G (5): Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, *Michigan State, Purdue
Big XII (7): Baylor, *Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia
Big West (1): Hawaii
Colonial (1): College of Charleston
Conference USA (1): Middle Tennessee
Horizon (1): Valparaiso
Ivy (1): Yale
Metro Atlantic (2): *Iona, Monmouth
MAC (1): Eastern Michigan
MEAC (1): North Carolina A&T
Missouri Valley (2): Northern Iowa, *Wichita State
Mountain West (1): New Mexico
Northeast (1): Wagner
Ohio Valley (1): Belmont
Pac 12 (6): Arizona, Arizona State, *Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, Utah
Patriot (1): Army
SEC (5): *Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
Southern (1): Chattanooga
Southland (1): Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
SWAC (1): Southern
Summit (1): Oral Roberts
Sun Belt (3): *Louisiana-Monroe, Texas-Arlington, UALR
West Coast (2): Gonzaga, *Saint Mary’s
WAC (1): Kansas City
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Last 4 In: Baylor, Indiana, Seton Hall, Wake Forest
First 4 Out: Alabama, Kansas State, Oregon State, UNLV
Others Considered (8): Cal, Davidson, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s, USC
Non-Power 6 At-Larges (7): Cincinnati, George Washington, Gonzaga, Monmouth, Northern Iowa, Texas-Arlington, UALR