Friday, November 9, 2012

Welcome back! 2012-13 Edition

Tonight marks the beginning of a brand new season of college basketball and another edition of The Bracket Project. My first bracket projection won't be released until January 2013 but you can see the Bracket Matrix right now.

If you want to contribute to the matrix, please read this:

1. You need to set up a web site to place your bracket that will be consistent throughout the season. A blog will do. A web site will most definitely do. A bracket posted on a message board will not do. The link will change frequently and will get lost in various discussions, making it difficult for the average reader to find it. (Exception: A message board devoted exclusively to bracketology.) Also, you can't post it on Facebook or some other social networking site because not everyone can access it. However, in order to promote discussion, an email address or some comment platform must be provided so that readers can praise or criticize your bracket.

2. You have to tell me where your site is. I don't have a sixth sense when it comes to finding these things. I rely on you and readers like you to tell me what kind of sites to add to this page.

3. The NCAA sets up procedures and principles for building a bracket. Read them! A seriously flawed bracket won't be posted. However, if your seedings are out of the norm, I'll still most likely post it provided that the principles are followed and you have an explanation as to why you've built the bracket like you did. I reserve the right to not post a bracket with something like a winless team as a #1 seed.

4. Please date-stamp your bracket. Brackets of a certain age will be removed from the list, and if there's no date-stamp, obviously I can't tell when your bracket was updated.

5. To make it easier on me, please format your bracket so that at least half of it can be seen on the screen at any one time. You can make it even easier for me by publishing a seed list of your 68 teams. Brackets must have at least 48 seeded teams to be listed in the matrix. Sites that merely list teams with no seeding can be linked to the page but will not be added to the matrix. To be listed in the final matrix of the season, you must have all 68 seeded teams.

6. No new sites will be added to the 2013 page after March 1, 2013 unless you appear in the rankings page (linked to the side), in which case, you will be grandfathered in. In addition, no bracket will be accepted to the final matrix of the season after the beginning of the Selection Sunday show.

7. Link to my site! I've linked to yours!

8. I'm only one guy. If this could pay me what I get at my regular job, I'd update this site 24/7. That simply is not the case. If someone else can do this better, I'll gladly step aside, but from the looks of it, I'm the only (crazy) one. So if you don't see your site on here, an update hasn't been done for a while or I don't respond to you, I hope you'll understand why.

The 2012-13 Bracket Matrix Links

All the links used in the Bracket Matrix for 2012-13 are listed below.

The window for new contributors is closed.  Those who have been in the matrix before should email me for inclusion.

Tiers are based on the Bracket Project rankings page.

Tier 1 (Above average brackets which have been in the matrix for 3 or more years)

The Bracket Project - BP

CBS Sports - Jerry Palm
ESPN - Joe Lunardi
Yahoo Sports - Brad Evans

Bleacher Report - Jordan Schwartz (BR-JS)
Bluejay Banter Bracketology from White and Blue Review
Bracketology Expert - Daniel Evans and Blake Hofstad
Bracketville - BV
Bracketville USA - BUSA
The Bracket Board
Brackonomics
Brad-ketology
Bucky's Bracket
Busting Bracketologists - CJ
Busting the Bracket
Chop Culture
College Hoops Net - Shawn Siegel
Jabesblog
Primetime Bracketology - HTTV and Buckeye

Bazinga Bracketology by James Hintz
Beer's Bracket
Bracket WAG
D1scourse/USA Today - Patrick Stevens
Feature Presentation Online
LAOJoe's Bracketology
Lobofan2003's Bracketology
MAG
SBN - Blogging the Bracket
Schmolik 64
The Sports Bank - TSB
VTS Bracketmaker

Tier 2 (Above average brackets which have been in the matrix for 2 years or less)

1-3-1 Sports
68 & 16 College Sportscast
Ivar's Take on Sports
Kyle Foster's Bracketology
Hoosierguy1019's Bracketology
M+J's Bracket Watch
The Quantitative Prognosticator
Stuck in 1977
Syracusefan7's Bracketology

Abramatology
CoopsHoops (formerly Bulldog Brackets)
Dre's Mock Bracket
Midwest Sports Fans
Roundball Chat - RBC

Tier 3 (Below average brackets which have been in the matrix for 3 or more years)

Sports Illustrated - Andy Glockner
The Sporting News - Ryan Fagan

660 Sports
Basketball Predictions - BaP
Bleacher Report (BR-JK) or The Catch and Shoot - Jesse Kramer
Brack Attack
Bracket Mensa - BM
Bracket Predictions - BrP
The D-World Society - DW
Daily Bracket - DB
March Madness '13 - MM13
Oak Creek's March Madness
Rainmaker's Bracketology
Rock M Nation

Crashing the Dance - CtD
Coolpohle's Bracketology
Crimson Cast - CC
Gotham Hoops - Jamal Murphy
The Hoops Report - THR
Real Time RPI
Warren Nolan

Tier 4 (Below average brackets which have been in the matrix for 2 years or less)

96 Madness - 96M
Big Underdog
BracketEDGE (formerly College Sports Vault)
Bracketological Excellence
Here's to the ACC
Kurt's Bracket
RFS Bracket Science
Seeding68
The Sports Headquarters - TSHQ

Bill Wild Bracketology
Crotistics
Cubbage32's Bracketology
Kerry Miller's Bracketology
Hatch Rankings
Jason Wells' Bracketology
Regan NCAA Tournament Index
Seed Madness
SportsRatings


Tier 5 (Brackets new to the matrix for 2012-13)

Bleacher Report - Ryan Satsky (BR-RS)
The Amateur Bracketologist - TAB
Beyond Varsity
The Bracket Blog - BrB
Bracket BYU
Bracket Masters
Bracket Packet
Bradley01 Bracketology
College Hoops Daily
College Hoops Review
Josh's Blog
Man with a Spreadsheet
Men's NCAA Basketball Projection Mania
VDG Bracket Prediction

7 Cities Witness
AllMediaNY - Lloyd Ribner
The Big Lead - Jason Lisk
The Boy Sports
Bracket Dance
Bracket Odds
College Sports Madness
D Ratings
Football and Brackets
G Money's Sports Page - GM
MyHOFS.com
nropp.com
Rocco Miller's Bracketology
Rock Chalk Talk
Sports Doctor Bracketology
Sports on Earth
StatSheet
The Steelers n'at
Team Rankings

37 Score
Hoops HD (The Buffet)
Jason Taylor's Tournament Picks