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Women’s basketball bracketology: Oregon claims a 1 seed by a narrow margin

By Russell Steinberg

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SOUTH BEND, IN – FEBRUARY 03: Notre Dame Fight Irish center Mikayla Vaughn (30) pulls down the rebound during the game between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on February 03, 2019, at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend IN. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN – FEBRUARY 03: Notre Dame Fight Irish center Mikayla Vaughn (30) pulls down the rebound during the game between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on February 03, 2019, at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend IN. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

South Bend:

1. Notre Dame (ACC)
16. Robert Morris (NEC)

8. Kentucky
9. DePaul

Ames:

5. Oregon State
12. Wright State (Horizon)

4. Iowa State
13. Missouri State (MVC)

Notre Dame has been in this spot for a while without much explanation, even with its loss at North Carolina. So here’s my reasoning, feel free to disagree. [Editor’s note: Russ IS a certified bracketologist, however.]

  • Notre Dame is No. 1 in the RPI, and the committee weighs the RPI VERY heavily. Way more than I think it should, but here we are until the NCAA comes up with a better metric.
  • Notre Dame has 10 Q1 wins, including four over the RPI top 15
  • Notre Dame beat Louisville (No. 2 overall) head-to-head.
  • UConn at home is Louisville’s only win over an RPI top 15 team.

You could argue that because Louisville’s resume is flawless except for that Notre Dame loss, the Cardinals should be No. 1. That’s reasonable. The rest of the resume just doesn’t have the same heft at this point.

Iowa City:

6. Miami
11. Missouri

3. Iowa (Big Ten)
14. Stephen F. Austin (Southland)

Palo Alto:

7. South Dakota (Summit)
10. BYU

2. Stanford
15. Northern Colorado (Big Sky)

BYU lost a couple tough ones this week and the Cougars dropped on the true seed line. They were a 9 last week (moved to a 10 for procedural purposes) and today sit as the last 10 seed. It was a drop of six spots even though their placement in the bracket remained the same — that’s just one of those weird bracketing quirks. Those losses to Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine were both on the road and both those schools are in the RPI top 150. They’re not good losses, but not so bad that it warranted dropping BYU out entirely.

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