Bracketology 2023: 5 conferences with teams that can bust your bracket

Welcome to the weekly Bracketology watchlist. Each week I will take a look at five games or storylines that should be on everyone’s radar for the upcoming weekend. Sometimes these games will be some of the most high-profile ones but sometimes they will be some games that have a significant impact on a team’s season as they look toward March. When the bracket is revealed and we wonder why one team made the field and another didn’t, or why a team is seeded higher or lower than some expected, that seemingly innocuous November result can be just as meaningful as an early-round exit in a conference tournament.

Over the last few seasons college basketball has put more of an emphasis on having some marquee matchups early in the year to try and generate more interest in the midst of college football season.  It has worked two-fold for the sport, it has gotten the sport more early exposure without waiting until January for more eyes to turn towards them. It also has begun to debunk the myth that the regular season in college basketball is meaningless.

Whether a game is in November or during championship week, they are all important, and in the end, they have some ramifications for someone even in postseason play. That is why the weekly watchlist will come to you from opening night until the week leading up to selection Sunday. In the final week before Selection Sunday conferences tournaments are in full swing, and the real bracket will be here on Sunday. For this final edition of the weekly watchlist, I wanted to look at some conferences that could have representatives that might bust your bracket.

Some of these conferences have their auto-bid decided and some do not, so the discussion may be about more than one team. So, enough rambling let’s get on with the watchlist and this weekend’s bevy of bracketology games and storylines.