It's back, and perhaps to the actual end of the regular season this time...

Bracketology is my weekly, late-season attempt to construct a playoff bracket, consider where teams stand based on their current results to-date, give people something interesting to talk about, and (most importantly) avoid homework.

Bracketology is a step-by-step process by which I try to use some semblance of methodology to build a bracket that makes sense within the confines of the Committee's regulations and restrictions.

The most important thing to remember about all this is that Bracketology is not a predictive tool. It's purpose is to examine the playoff field if the brackets were chosen today.

The first step is to gather the field of 16. First, the champions of the autobid conferences. These teams are the current leaders of their conference, complete with conference-specific tiebreakers if necessary, and use of overall record if everything else fails.
Autobids after 10/20 are:
Big Sky: Montana
CAA: Massachsetts*
Gateway: Northern Iowa
MEAC: Norfolk State**
OVC: Eastern Kentucky
Patriot: Fordham
Southern: Elon***
Southland: McNeese State
*-Using all CAA tiebreakers, UMass and JMU remained completely tied. GPI used to break tie
**-MEAC tiebreakers could not be found, all records equal. Using GPI components, NSU leads DSU in total catagories led 6-5
***-SoCon tiebreakers could not be found. Elon beat Wofford, Wofford beat The Citadel, Elon and The Citadel have not played

Now the at-larges. Rather than simply picking the 8 at-larges that I feel like, I try to use a system of some sort. Much to the chagrin of some, I'm sure, I use the GPI. For 5 of the last 6 years, the GPI has correctly selected 7 of the 8 at-large teams for the playoff field. While some of you will immediately suggest last season as reason to avoid this, I consider 2006 an outlier, and will further discuss that in a later post. Thus, I will take the Top 8 remaining in the GPI, and add a "+1" who will take the place of 1 of the 8
The "8+1" are:
1-James Madison
2-Southern Illinois
3-New Hampshire
4-Appalachian State
5-Delaware
6-Wofford
7-Richmond
8-Hofstra
+1-Youngstown State
I chose Youngstown because the Penguins are the #9 at-large in the GPI, so it's easier for the first week, and because a 3rd Gateway team made more sense than a 4th SoCon or 7th CAA. I'll use them to replace Hofstra as again, 9 replacing 8 is easier, Hofstra did not look good in losing to the only quality team they've faced on their schedule this past week, and even 5 teams from one conference is unprecedented, let alone 6.

So the Field of 16 is:
Appalachian State
Delaware
Eastern Kentucky
Elon
Fordham
James Madison
Massachsetts
McNeese State
Montana
New Hampshire
Norfolk State
Northern Iowa
Richmond
Southern Illinois
Wofford
Youngstown State

Next post will be seeding, home teams, and bracketing