So there have been a handful of bracket/resume/NET related threads, but I haven't seen one that really summarizes or guides people on which brackets to look at, who's best, or where to compare resumes. Hoping this thread can help.
Background, I've been doing bracketology off and on since 2014. I've missed a couple years (2016 and 2021) which is why you won't see my rankings on the
Bracket Matrix currently, but I should be added to the list again after this season. I finished
21st in 2018 and
16th in 2019 in my last two years of doing it (see "B12" for the label/link in those two year's rankings).
First things first, there is no need to ever cite Lunardi or Palm and their brackets! Ever! They are not good at it! Especially Palm! He's currently
ranked 100 out of 135, and Lunardi is middle-of-the-pack at best and typically does one "magical" update right before Selection Sunday where his bracket suddenly changes and resembles the consensus of the Bracket Matrix. Reading threads here and seeing people bring up these two constantly is maddening. Ignore them!
Here are the some of the best over many years and who people should be looking at:
- Dave Ommen at Bracketville
- Lukas Harkins at HeatCheckCBB
- Delphi Bracketology
- Rocco Miller at Bracketeer
- Jonathon Warriner at Making The Madness
- Shelby Mast at Bracket WAG (He's dropped in the rankings in recent years so take his with a grain of salt, but I remember him being one of the best when I started this back in mid-2010s. Also, he does daily updates if you're itching for something new.)
Those are a good five/six to check daily to see what their updates are. When all else fails, just rely on the
Bracket Matrix consensus instead of Lunardi and Palm.
If interested,
here's a link to where I'm posting my bracket updates which can be found at the Bracket Matrix as well. I just do it in Google Sheets now, and I update right now on Monday and Friday.
Honestly, I don't care much if you look at my bracket, but I do think a lot of people here would find value in the "Resumes" tab I have in the sheet. I keep reading people who say, "If we lose this one, we drop to Dayton" without having any idea what other school's resumes actually look like (and how ISU is much closer to a 7 than an 11/12 as long we don't lose out).
Here's an easy spreadsheet to avail yourself of the data the committee is actually using as they evaluate and seed teams. It's set up so you can sort/filter each teams' resumes/metrics however you would like. Right now, I do a mass update of the data on Monday and Friday as well, but will update more frequently as we get into the week of major conference tournaments.
Hope the bracket recommendations and resume data are of good use! And seriously, no more Lunardi and Palm here please.
www.si.com
