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If you don't count the Baseball sweep or Manny's last second shot to beat Ole Miss, my favorite moment from the weekend was hearing Gameday mention the Hogs as a team that could potentially be this year's UCONN. Though, I think I'd rather have a higher seed than UCONN had last season, and as winners of 7 of their last 8 games, the Hogs have all but punched a ticket. The question now becomes how high will they be seeded?
Last week, we discussed how RPI is actually calculated, but how does that get used? When you look at a team's resume, like Arkansas's, what are the big things a team needs to have to make the field of 68?
Obviously, a winning record is important, and usually teams won't even be considered for at large bids f they don't have at least 20 wins but what's more important is the record against the different sets of RPI. Arkansas is 5-2 against the RPI top 50, 7-5 against the top 100, and 11-5 against the top 150. Additionally, they have no losses outside of the top 100. That's a good resume.
Last season, those same numbers went 3-5 top 50, 9-8 top 100, and 12-11 against the top 150. Obviously much better this season.
All that being said, here's what Arkansas' new and improved resume has gotten them according to the bracketologists
- ESPN: 6-seed in Columbus vs the winner of the UCLA vs Illinois play-in game. The winner would play the Notre Dame/William & Mary winner. A little disappointing the Hogs' win in Oxford didn't bump them up to a 5-seed.
- CBS: 5-seed in Jacksonville vs Valparaiso, with the winner playing the Northern Iowa/Harvard winner.
- Yahoo! Sports: 4-seed. They don't fill out a full bracket but just seed all the teams. They have the Hogs as #14.
- Sports Illustrated: 5-seed vs Wofford in the first round (doesn't specify location). The winner would face the Butler/Eastern Washington winner.
- Fox Sports: 5-seed vs Valparaiso in Jacksonville. The winner would play the North Carolina/Sam Houston winner.
- SB Nation: 6-seed in Louisville vs the Purdue/Xavier play-in game winner.
USA Today hasn't updated since before Saturday's games, when Arkansas was a pretty solid 6-seed.
- USA Today: (not updated since Sunday) 6-seed vs St. John's (they don't project which teams go to which location). The winner would play the Louisville/Buffalo winner.