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Bracket Watch season premiere

Welcome to the 2nd season of Howard Salwasser's Bracket Watch. Hope you're ready for the exictement of Bracketology Season, because it should be fun. Before releasing the first projection(as of Sunday night's games), here is a reminder of how we roll at HSBW.
First, all teams that are deemed Automatic qualifiers-The Conference they represent are listed in parenthesis-are those teams that...
A: Have the best record in the conference either through head to head or games played or
B: If there teams tied at the top and they haven't met in the season, the best RPI rank after the most recent league game played. Starting this year, due to the fact Ken Pomeroy no longer does RPI info on his site anymore, I'll use the RPI data found at Rivals.com.
Second, the at-large teams are chosen as if it's a consensus of the committee on Selection Sunday.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's the first projection of the season:

Final Four Pairings:
East(1) vs. West(4)
Midwest(2) vs. South(3)

East Region(TD Banknorth Garden, Boston)

@UD Arena; Dayton, OH
1-Pittsburgh(Big East) vs. 16-Opening Round Winner
Opening Round: 64-Western Illinois(Summit) vs. 65-Arkansas-Pine Bluff(Southwestern)
8-Arkansas vs. 9-Maryland
@Rose Garden Arena; Portland
4-Wisconsin vs. 13-Boise State(Western Athletic)
5-Memphis(Conference USA) vs. 12-Western Kentucky(Sun Belt)
@American Airlines Arena; Miami
2-Wake Forest vs. 15-East Tennessee State(Atlantic Sun)
7-California(Pacific-10) vs. 10-Kansas
@Dayton
3-Xavier(Atlantic 10) vs. 14-American(Patriot League)
6-Notre Dame vs. 11-Ohio State

West Region(University of Phoenix Arena; Glendale, AZ)

@Wachovia Center; Philadelphia
1-Georgetown vs. 16-Morgan State(Mid-Eastern)
8-Brigham Young vs. 9-Davidson(Southern)
@Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; Minneapolis
4-Illinois vs. 13-Stephen F. Austin(Southland)
5-Butler vs. 12-George Mason(Colonial)
@Sprint Center; Kansas City
2-Oklahoma(Big 12) vs. 15-Binghamton(America East)
7-Marquette vs. 10-St. Mary's(West Coast)
@Miami
3-Clemson vs. 14-Miami(OH)(Mid-American)
6-Illinois State(Missouri Valley) vs. 11-Stanford

Midwest Region(Lucas Oil Stadium; Indianapolis)

@Greensboro Coliseum; Greensboro, NC
1-North Carolina vs. 16-Robert Morris(Northeast)
8-Missouri vs. 9-Florida
@Taco Bell Arena; Boise, ID
4-West Virginia vs. 13-Milwaukee(Horizon)
5-Michigan vs. 12-Siena(Metro Atlantic)
@Minneapolis
2-Michigan State(Big Ten) vs. 15-Morehead State(Ohio Valley)
7-Texas A&M vs. 10-Nevada-Las Vegas
@Portland
3-Syracuse vs. 14-Virginia Military(Big South)
6-Arizona State vs. 11-Boston College

South Region(FedEx Forum; Memphis)

@Greensboro
1-Duke(Atlantic Coast) vs. 16-Long Beach State(Big West)
8-Minnesota vs. 9-Gonzaga
@Boise
4-Tennessee(Southeastern) vs. 13-Utah(Mountain West)
5-UCLA vs. 12-Louisville
@Philadelphia
2-Connecticut vs. 15-Cornell(Ivy League)
7-Purdue vs. 10-Miami(FL)
@Kansas City
3-Texas vs. 14-Portland State(Big Sky)
6-Dayton vs. 11-Villanova

Last four in the field: Villanova, Stanford, Louisville, Ohio State
First four left out: Baylor, St. John's, Washington, Utah State
Next four left out: Cleveland State, Arizona, Louisiana State, Southern California
Also on the board: Florida State, Virginia Tech, Rhode Island, Providence, Penn State, Northwestern, Texas Tech, Virginia Commonwealth, Northeastern, UAB, Houston, Wright State, Buffalo, Creighton, Evansville, Kentucky, Alabama, College of Charleston, Middle Tennessee State

The next projection is slated for next Monday.

Polls that matter

If you look to the right of this blog, there's a poll question on whom(after North Carolina and Connecticut) is the most likely to be a #1 seed at the end of the year.
Go ahead, it won't hurt a bit.

What to expect in the 08-09 season.

Well the offseason is over and that means a new season of bracketology. As was the case last year, I will make a projected bracket every Monday afternoon, starting in January. In late February, we'll go twice a week, but it will be on Fridays instead of Thursdays. As always, the bracket will be projected daily(except Saturday the week before the brackets are released.

Oh, and that preseason bracket I was thinking about doing? Nah, not doing it as usual. See ya in January.

Reaction to the field

Well another year has passed and remarkably, I missed only one at-large. Not that I have any quarrls about it as Villanova was my last team out and the team I missed, Illinois State was third from the cut-line anyway. What was really remarkable was that I had 28 teams at their exact seed and 25 that were one away from their seed(Not excluding the Mississippi State duplicate).

THE 1 SEEDS

I made a very late change to have North Carolina the top seed overall. Yes it was deliberate, I had Memphis as top seed overall until this afternoon when the Tar Heels won the ACC. The Tigers were never in danger of losing a top seed even after the Tennessee Loss. Kansas moved to the 4th #1 seed in the wake of Tennessee's loss in the SEC semis and Kansas' win over Texas in the Big 12 Final. UCLA locked up the top seed in the West last week.

Who benefitied in seeding: Oregon and Miami(FL) up 3 seed lines, Arizona, Oral Roberts and Vanderbilt up 2 seed lines.
Who got hosed in seeding: Butler and Indiana down 3 seed lines. Georgia, Kansas State, Portland State and Temple down 2 seed lines.
Who benefitied in placement: Texas in the South, West Virginia in Washington D.C, Georgetown in Raleigh
Who got hosed in placement: Tennessee in the East, Duke in Washington D.C., Cornell in Anaheim

Something only a bracketologist would notice
In the era of pods, there are four sub-regional sites that will feed into one region: Birmingham(EAST), North Little Rock(SOUTH), Omaha(MIDWEST) and Washington D.C.(WEST)

We'll that's it for now. Next projection is slated for sometime before the regular season starts(No projection after the national championship).