ESPN Bracketology: The Pac-12 Has Two Teams (Barely) In The NCAA Tournament

On Tuesday (January 29th), ESPN’s Joe Lunardi - the original “bracketologist” of the college basketball world - released his latest version of the world-famous “Bracketology”. The 68-team bracket, which is an analytical guesstimation of how the NCAA Tournament field would look if the season ended today is just about the closest thing any college hoops junkie can get until Selection Sunday comes around.

Lunardi is arguably the best in the business at what he does. With that prowess in mind, it’s no surprise to see that the Pac-12 is scarcely represented in the projected tournament line-up, with only Washington (#8 seed in West region) and Arizona State (#11 seed in East region/First Four) as the lone representatives from the proclaimed “Conference of Champions”. Lunardi even goes as far to list the 14-6 Sun Devils as one of his “Last Four In” overall, alongside bubble-busting squads like Seton Hall, Alabama and VCU.

Somehow, things have gotten painfully real for the futility of this league very, very quickly.

The fact of the matter is that with this newest assessment of the field, Arizona (14-7) has fallen into Lunardi’s “Next Four Out” grouping, with six teams in Florida, Creighton, Butler, Utah State, San Francisco and Temple all sitting in front of them. While San Francisco, a West Coast Conference member, and Utah State, a Mountain West Conference squad, may both have to keep their resumes nearly spotless to ensure their shot at the big dance is still alive, the other grouping of schools still have multiple RPI/NET/BPI/Selection Committee-defining contests ahead on their slate.

None of the aforementioned Pac-12 schools may be as lucky.

Currently, Washington, the conference leader at perfect 7-0, will host the Los Angeles schools (UCLA and USC) this week and then travel to Arizona and Arizona State the week after, in games that could undoubtedly shut the door on either the Wildcats or the Sun Devils. If either of the Grand Canyon State duo can’t snag an upset win - and the Huskies continue to roll through the conference - the lack of quality depth in the league could signal a likely one-bid conference in the big dance, especially if Washington sweeps both the regular season and post-season championships.

So what would a possible one-big league in the NCAA Tournament really mean to the Pac-12?

With the recent firestorm surrounding commissioner Larry Scott in terms of moving the poorly attended conference football championship game, the strange equity sales of the league to private investors and a severely declining sports infrastructure all-around, having just one program to represent the prestigious brand of the Pac-12 would be devastating.

But if that’s how the cards are dealt at the end of the day, you’d be hard pressed to argue with any members of the selection committee. Simply put, the Pac-12 just doesn’t deserve to have their spots at the dance reserved if they can’t produce a quality product after all.