Just a reminder that the next bracket will be posted next Monday, December 3. The matrix now includes two sites that have updated with their first brackets of the year: Bracketography and Bracket Predictions.

The matrix has been updated for this week. Just a quick note that the pre-season brackets will stay in the matrix until December 3 and then they will be removed unless an update has been made to that bracket.

The beginning of the college basketball season is always pretty slow so don't expect too much in terms of updates. The matrix will be updated again on Monday the 19th. It would've been last Monday but the combination of work and a trip to Hawaii have made my schedule pretty full.

As you know, the main players in the post-season scene are the NCAA tournament and the NIT. But my newspaper is reporting that a third tournament is in the works to allow 16 more teams into postseason play. I honestly didn't know there was that much of a need to find the 98th best team in the land but the people behind the College Basketball Invitational feel there is. Quite simply, teams need to earn their way into the postseason so if you're not good enough to get into the top 97, I'm not sure they deserve to be in any tournament.

Welcome to the new season. Regular readers will know I don't like doing pre-season brackets. You gotta have some foundation to what you're forecasting. It's exactly why they play the games. But what's posted on the main site (link on right or pdf below) will be the starting point, representing a strengthening Pac-10, a weakening Big Ten and 9 teams from the Big East.

Next update for the bracket is in December while the matrix will be updated as needed/when I have time.

http://bracketproject.atspace.com/200708Preseason.pdf

Are you a bracketologist and would like to be a part of The Bracket Matrix this season? Please read the following:

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.

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 65 teams. Only brackets that seed at least 48 teams will be listed in the matrix.

6. No new sites will be added to the 2008 page after March 1 unless you have appeared in the 2006 or 2007 versions of this page, 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. 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.