Welcome Back! 2020 Edition

Welcome to yet another season of The Bracket Project.

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

1. You need to set up a place to post 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 generally 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 or Twitter feed devoted exclusively to bracketology or at least, a sticky post.) Also, you can't post it on Facebook or some other social networking site because not everyone can access it. In order to promote discussion, an email address or some comment platform should 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. A seed list is good enough for the matrix but if you build a bracket, remember that 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. Brackets and seed lists should be your opinion only. Don't just copy another site's work (or the matrix) and call it your own.

5. 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.

6. 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. 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.

7. No new sites will be added to the 2020 page after March 1, 2020 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.

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

9. 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 after all these years, I'm still 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.

2020 Preseason Bracketology Tracker

Here's a list of sites that have gotten a jump start on the 2019-20 season. This list is frozen as of October 6. Next update will be the first matrix on November 5.

October 6 - Bracket Bingo

October 3 - ESPN - Joe Lunardi

September 16 - Andy Katz

September 4 - Making the Madness

August 1 - CBS Sports - Jerry Palm

August 1 - Busting Brackets

July 24 - Delphi Bracketology

July 23 - Bracket WAG

June 3 - Ivar's Blog

April 9 - Bracket Odds

April 9 - Isaac Perrigo Bracketology

April 9 - Three-Man-Weave

Countdown - College Sports Madness

2019 Prediction

My prediction for this year's tournament.

2019 NIT Projection

2019 Final Seed List

1 - Virginia, Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan State

2 - North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee

3 - Houston, Kansas, Texas Tech, LSU

4 - Florida State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Villanova

5 - Auburn, Kansas State, Marquette, Virginia Tech

6 - Buffalo, Mississippi State, Maryland, Iowa State

7 - Cincinnati, Nevada, Wofford, Louisville

8 - VCU, Central Florida, Washington, Utah State

9 - Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, Seton Hall

10 - TCU, Florida, Syracuse, Baylor

11 - Ole Miss/Temple, Murray State, St. Mary's, Belmont

12 - New Mexico State, Oregon, ASU/Ohio State, Liberty

13 - Yale, UC Irvine, Vermont, Northeastern

14 - Old Dominion, Georgia State, St. Louis, Northern Kentucky

15 - Montana, Colgate, Abilene Christian, Bradley

16 - Gardner-Webb, Prairie View A&M, North Dakota State/Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson/North Carolina Central

NIT Worksheet - 3/10

I haven't paid too much attention to my own NCAA and NIT brackets this season due to the matrix. I'll definitely have them on Selection Sunday, but we'll wait and see if I have time to make a bracket this week.

In the meantime, here's the list I'm starting out with this week for the NIT (in ABC order).

Automatic Bids thru 3/10

Belmont, Campbell, Lipscomb, Loyola-Chicago, South Dakota State

Top Tier (Half of these teams likely to NCAAs, other half to NIT)

Alabama, Arizona State, Creighton, Florida, Furman, Indiana, NC State, Ohio State, Seton Hall, St. John's, St. Mary's, Temple, Texas, Toledo, UNC-Greensboro

Middle Tier (Likely to NIT, lots of work needed to get to NCAAs)

Arkansas, Butler, Davidson, Dayton, Georgetown, Memphis, Nebraska, Oregon, Providence, Xavier

Bottom Tier (NIT/CBI/CIT/Nothing)

Arizona, BYU, Charleston, Colorado, DePaul, Drake, E. Tennessee State, Fresno State, Kent State, Miami (FL), Missouri, Northeastern, Oregon State, Penn State, San Diego, San Francisco, South Carolina, Tulsa, UCLA, Utah, Utah Valley, Wichita State, Yale, and more

Conference Championship Schedule - 2019

Here's my annual pdf that lists when you can catch each conference's championship game.

2019 Conference Tournaments