College volleyball bracketology, 5th version

Once more unto the breach!

I missed covering the polls yesterday, and the actual factual D-II bracket came out as well, but I don't want to cover things that are already a day cold. If you want to see the D-II bracket, check it out on NCAA.com. I will at least cover my own school's matches in the D-II tournament, and possibly quite a bit more. It doesn't start until next week (same as the D-I tournament).

This will be my second-to-last bracketology. I wanted to do nine total of these, but I guess I'm bad at keeping with self-imposed schedules. I'll end up with six; the one to be posted on Saturday night will be my final version. I think I will probably miss a few at-larges; it's not a clear picture this year. The biggest question I have is the SEC, as they have eight teams within the likely at-large RPI cutoff. How many of them will get in? I'm honestly not sure.

Here's a rundown of the current automatic qualifiers:

America East – New Hampshire
American Athletic – Louisville
Atlantic 10 – Duquesne
Atlantic Sun – Jacksonville
Big 12 – Texas
Big South – Radford
Colonial – College of Charleston
Conference USA – Texas-San Antonio
Horizon  – Milwaukee
Ivy  – Yale
Metro Atlantic – Fairfield
Mid-American – Ohio
Mid-Eastern Athletic – Hampton
Mountain West – Colorado State
Northeast – LIU Brooklyn
Ohio Valley – Morehead State
Patriot – American
Southeastern – Missouri
Southern – Georgia Southern
Southland – Central Arkansas
Southwestern Athletic – Alabama State
Summit League – IUPUI
Sun Belt – Texas State

And with that in mind, here we go.

1. Texas
2. Penn State
3. Missouri
4. Washington
5. USC
6. Stanford
7. Florida
8. Nebraska
9. Colorado State
10. San Diego
11. Minnesota
12. Wisconsin
13. Kansas
14. Kentucky
15. North Carolina
16. Michigan State

A few changes there. As well as here, thanks to the automatic bids.

LAST FOUR IN:

1. Tulsa
2. Butler
3. UCLA
4. Ohio State

FIRST FOUR OUT:

1. Arizona State
2. Colgate
3. Miami
4. NC State

NEXT FOUR OUT:

1. Xavier
2. Colorado
3. Tulane
4. Northwestern

NEBRASKA REGIONAL:

(1) Texas vs Texas State
TX-San Antonio vs LSU

Ohio vs Butler
(16) Michigan State vs Fairfield

Creighton vs Iowa State
(8) Nebraska vs Wichita State

(9) Colorado State vs LIU-Brooklyn
Utah vs Oklahoma

USC REGIONAL:

(5) USC vs Alabama State
Cal State Northridge vs Michigan

Marquette vs UCLA
(12) Wisconsin vs Milwaukee

(4) Washington vs Radford
Hawaii vs Arkansas

California vs Purdue
(13) Kansas vs Tulsa

KENTUCKY REGIONAL:

(3) Missouri vs IUPUI
Central Arkansas vs Louisville

Ohio State vs Duke
(14) Kentucky vs Morehead State

(11) Minnesota vs North Dakota
Oregon vs Alabama

BYU vs UC Santa Barbara
(6) Stanford vs College of Charleston

ILLINOIS REGIONAL:

(7) Florida vs Jacksonville
Florida State vs Georgia Southern

Arizona vs Illinois
(10) San Diego vs New Mexico State

(15) North Carolina vs Hampton
American vs Georgia

Yale vs Duquesne
(2) Penn State vs New Hampshire

CONFERENCES BY NUMBER OF BIDS:

9 – Big Ten

8 – Pac-12

7 – Southeastern

4 – Big 12

3 – Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big West

2 – Conference USA, West Coast

1 – Other 23 conferences

I'm really interested to get feedback on this bracket, because I completely changed my methodology for doing it. Don't want to reveal much else than that (quite frankly — for fear of embarrassing myself) but I think this bracket's better than any I've done this year. Do you agree?

The one at-large that may raise a few eyebrows is Tulsa, but I can't leave the #39 RPI team at home. I know, RPI's not supposed to be gospel (and I'm one of the ones who's usually saying that), but frankly I think they're in. The fact that they didn't even make the finals of their conference tournament may be their undoing, but they've got to be in. My bracket anyway!