Southland Bracketolgy
The overall numbers for the Southland conference as a whole isn’t good, and that’s largely because of how awful the teams at the bottom are. Everyone else has to play them once or even twice, which drags down every team’s individual numbers as a result.
That means that the conference champion would not only be nearly guaranteed a 16 seed, but also will likely have to be part of a “play in” game. On a bright note, depending on who wins, they’ll be a strong favorite over some of the other probable 16 seeds to advance.
Who has a shot to do the impossible?
At some point, a 16 seed will defeat a one seed, with the margin of victory of these games getting smaller and smaller. And two teams more than the others have a slim, but still a chance of making history.
The first is Nicholls State, who has high-major talent on the roster, as well as the kind of offense needed to pull off the upset. Another is of course, Central Arkansas. The talent behind Howard might be thin, but the close loss to UCLA earlier in the season shows that they’re capable of putting up points on power conference teams.
And who knows, maybe Howard for one game can put up 50 points to beat a team? There’s been bigger surprises now.