Bracketology Bubble Watch: Xavier, Tulsa surging into consideration

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: The reflection of the stadium can be seen in a bubble ahead of the FA Cup Fourth Round match between West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion at The London Stadium on January 25, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /

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SUNRISE, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 21: The Aggies celebrate. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

Lead-Pipe Locks: San Diego State.

At-Large Contenders: Northern Iowa, ETSU, Utah State

Northern Iowa Panthers (19-3, 8-2 MVC)

NET: 43 | KPI: 44 | SOR: 27 | BPI: 55 | KP: 39 | Sag: 55

Q1: 1-1 | Q2: 2-0 | Q3: 9-2 | Q4: 5-0

Northern Iowa just continues to build an at-large worthy resume, in my opinion. The Panthers have suffered a pair of tough road losses in Q2 but they are also 19-3 with a road win over Colorado. If this kind of resume doesn’t dance over a barely-over-.500 Big Ten team, then I’m not sure what we’re doing here. Either way, this only matters if Northern Iowa is able to roll through the final stretch of MVC play. They are the best team in the conference and should show it. Only one truly difficult game (at Loyola-Chicago) remains. Current Bracketology Status: No. 12 seed as an auto-bid.

East Tennessee State Buccaneers (19-4, 8-2 SC)

NET: 53 | KPI: 50 | SOR: 34 | BPI: 49 | KP: 66 | Sag: 58

Q1: 2-1 | Q2: 2-1 | Q3: 4-1 | Q4: 8-1

East Tennessee State has a fairly similar resume to Northern Iowa except its worst loss is worse and it has suffered one extra defeat. As a result, the Buccaneers’ margin for error is very small in order to make the dance. Their road win over LSU is aging beautifully, though, and that is nothing to simply overlook. Current Bracketology Status: No. 12 seed as an auto-bid.

Utah State Aggies (17-7, 6-5 MWC)

NET: 55 | KPI: 77 | SOR: 53 | BPI: 39 | KP: 47 | Sag: 50

Q1: 2-4 | Q2: 1-2 | Q3: 4-1 | Q4: 8-0

Utah State has not lived up to its preseason hype as a Top 25 team in the nation but that doesn’t mean it has been bad. The Aggies have played at a relatively high level throughout this season and are the most-likely team to be the second bid out of the MWC this season. They have won three of their last four games to move to 17-7 (6-5 MWC) on the campaign and can boast relatively strong metrics across the board. Utah State still has work to do in order to reach the Big Dance with an at-large bid, but the possibility exists. Current Bracketology Status: OUT

Others worth monitoring: UNC-Greensboro and Yale.

Bracketology Projected Field. dark. Next

That concludes this edition of my bracketology bubble watch with a little over two months remaining until Selection Sunday. Check back again next Wednesday for another update.

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