Preseason NCAA tournament for Potential New Value Add Basketball Cards

Our most popular blog to date is our Value Add Basketball Game, with more than 42,000 clicks and another 100 or so every day. I am considering putting together a set of cards for the 2020-21 season, that will start in real life at the end of November. (more than 26,000 have clicked on these baseball game instructions to make it my second most popular on these pages).

This would entail updating rosters and putting adding new cards for incoming freshmen. The first step is to decide which teams to include, and my initial conclusion is to pull the 68 teams most likely to make the tournament based on; 1) getting at least 2 points in the initial AP poll, and beyond those teams, 2) taking the top teams based on their ratings at www.kenpom.com. From there I would treat the highest ranked team in each conference as the conference champion.

The following is the list of the 68 teams we would include if we can pull this off. For purposes of the game, we divided the teams into four 17-team conferences, sort of like the tournament brackets but mainly based on geography and trying to keep teams with their real conference foes except for cases like putting Syracuse in the East rather than the South with their ACC foes. I did not load balance conferences like they would in the tournament. Then I list the actual seed the would project to be in a tournament based on the process below - with a ".5" indicating a playin game for that spot. then I list where their offense and defense rank based on www.kenpom.com.

Game Conf	Real Conf	Seed	Team	Off Rnk	Def Rnk
East	MAC	14	Buffalo	109	143
East	Pat	15	Colgate	105	205
East	BE	10	Connecticut	33	52
East	BE	4	Creighton	6	46
East	NEC	16.5	Fairleigh Dickinson	153	318
East	CAA	16	Hofstra	124	194
East	BE	9	Marquette	31	39
East	BE	12.5	Providence	79	44
East	A10	11.5	Richmond	42	76
East	B10	7	Rutgers	51	12
East	BE	11	Seton Hall	49	48
East	MAAC	15	Siena	136	142
East	ACC	8	Syracuse	27	35
East	AE	12	Vermont	96	85
East	BE	1	Villanova	5	9
East	B12	2	West Virginia	12	7
East	Ivy	13	Yale	77	137
Midwest	Amer	6	Houston	8	49
Midwest	B10	5	Illinois	20	21
Midwest	B10	7	Indiana	40	17
Midwest	B10	3	Iowa	2	73
Midwest	MVC	11	Loyola Chicago	67	32
Midwest	Amer	10	Memphis	65	19
Midwest	B10	5	Michigan	9	31
Midwest	B10	4	Michigan St.	10	28
Midwest	OVC	13	Murray St.	101	94
Midwest	B10	3	Ohio St.	18	10
Midwest	B10	7	Purdue	16	37
Midwest	A10	10	Saint Louis	70	25
Midwest	Sum	13	South Dakota St.	44	170
Midwest	CUSA	12	Western Kentucky	56	103
Midwest	B10	2	Wisconsin	19	2
Midwest	Horz	14	Wright St.	123	104
South	SEC	11	Alabama	37	59
South	SEC	12.5	Auburn	59	74
South	ACC	1	Duke	4	6
South	SEC	6	Florida	24	24
South	ACC	5	Florida St.	26	16
South	SC	12	Furman	71	84
South	SB	14	Georgia St.	90	128
South	SEC	3	Kentucky	13	18
South	ASun	16.5	Liberty	219	124
South	ACC	4	Louisville	22	14
South	SEC	9	LSU	7	83
South	MEAC	16.5	Norfolk St.	305	145
South	ACC	6	North Carolina	23	22
South	SEC	5	Tennessee	25	20
South	ACC	4	Virginia	75	1
South	ACC	8	Virginia Tech	38	26
South	BSth	14	Winthrop	82	158
West	P12	9	Arizona St.	36	36
West	B12	1	Baylor	3	8
West	WCC	11.5	BYU	72	110
West	BSky	15	Eastern Washington	120	175
West	WCC	1	Gonzaga	1	13
West	B12	2	Kansas	11	4
West	WAC	13	New Mexico St.	113	105
West	B12	8	Oklahoma	30	34
West	B12	9	Oklahoma St.	39	30
West	P12	6	Oregon	15	29
West	MWC	10	San Diego St.	52	40
West	P12	8	Stanford	69	11
West	Slnd	16	Stephen F. Austin	183	115
West	B12	3	Texas	32	3
West	SWAC	16.5	Texas Southern	248	269
West	B12	2	Texas Tech	14	5
West	BW	15	UC Santa Barbara	141	121
West	P12	7	UCLA	17	45

dddd

Conf	Seed	Team	Off Rnk	Def Rnk
A10	10	Saint Louis	70	25
A10	11.5	Richmond	42	76
ACC	1	Duke	4	6
ACC	4	Louisville	22	14
ACC	4	Virginia	75	1
ACC	5	Florida St.	26	16
ACC	6	North Carolina	23	22
ACC	8	Syracuse	27	35
ACC	8	Virginia Tech	38	26
AE	12	Vermont	96	85
Amer	6	Houston	8	49
Amer	10	Memphis	65	19
ASun	16.5	Liberty	219	124
B10	2	Wisconsin	19	2
B10	3	Ohio St.	18	10
B10	3	Iowa	2	73
B10	4	Michigan St.	10	28
B10	5	Michigan	9	31
B10	5	Illinois	20	21
B10	7	Purdue	16	37
B10	7	Indiana	40	17
B10	7	Rutgers	51	12
B12	1	Baylor	3	8
B12	2	Kansas	11	4
B12	2	Texas Tech	14	5
B12	2	West Virginia	12	7
B12	3	Texas	32	3
B12	8	Oklahoma	30	34
B12	9	Oklahoma St.	39	30
BE	1	Villanova	5	9
BE	4	Creighton	6	46
BE	9	Marquette	31	39
BE	10	Connecticut	33	52
BE	11	Seton Hall	49	48
BE	12.5	Providence	79	44
BSky	15	Eastern Washington	120	175
BSth	14	Winthrop	82	158
BW	15	UC Santa Barbara	141	121
CAA	16	Hofstra	124	194
CUSA	12	Western Kentucky	56	103
Horz	14	Wright St.	123	104
Ivy	13	Yale	77	137
MAAC	15	Siena	136	142
MAC	14	Buffalo	109	143
MEAC	16.5	Norfolk St.	305	145
MVC	11	Loyola Chicago	67	32
MWC	10	San Diego St.	52	40
NEC	16.5	Fairleigh Dickinson	153	318
OVC	13	Murray St.	101	94
P12	6	Oregon	15	29
P12	7	UCLA	17	45
P12	8	Stanford	69	11
P12	9	Arizona St.	36	36
Pat	15	Colgate	105	205
SB	14	Georgia St.	90	128
SC	12	Furman	71	84
SEC	3	Kentucky	13	18
SEC	5	Tennessee	25	20
SEC	6	Florida	24	24
SEC	9	LSU	7	83
SEC	11	Alabama	37	59
SEC	12.5	Auburn	59	74
Slnd	16	Stephen F. Austin	183	115
Sum	13	South Dakota St.	44	170
SWAC	16.5	Texas Southern	248	269
WAC	13	New Mexico St.	113	105
WCC	1	Gonzaga	1	13
WCC	11.5	BYU	72	110

Since I will not have time to play full conference play, I may just make each of these four "conferences" a double elimination series of games, but then take the four champions either to a Final Four or have them be the top 4 seeds in a 12-team tournament with 8 more overall teams for a small final tournament. If I did that, then the following would be the games between the Eastern Conference created above.