Bracketology 2024: Eastern Kentucky, Colgate, and James Madison among favorites at the start of Champ Week

Patriot League March 5, 7, 10, 13

The Patriot League which also gets underway Tuesday has gone 0-10 in the last decade in the Big Dance despite having an average seed of 14 over that time. It’s also a little surprising because the league has had many teams people thought were capable of winning a game if not more.

In the first half of the past decade, Bucknell was the team to beat winning three titles. In the last five years to win the Patriot League you would have to go through Colgate who has won the last four tournament titles in which there was an NCAA Tournament held. Looking at the standings, Colgate has once again run away with the regular season title with a four-game lead with two games left.

As dominant as Colgate has been in league play, that isn’t necessarily going to translate into a better seed should they win the auto bid it will likely be the opposite. Even though the Raiders tried to schedule to help their resume by playing Arizona and Illinois on the road, the only win they got in the first two quads was a six-point win over Vermont. Playing in the Patriot League doesn’t help them either with 21 of their games being in quad 4 by season’s end. If Colgate wins the tournament they could be a No. 16 seed with hopes of climbing a seed line if there are upsets elsewhere.