Jerry Palm of CBS Sports is known for his accurate BCS and NCAA tournament predictions. He produces a Bracketology segment that he updates throughout the year as the college basketball season progresses. The first one was written yesterday and it bodes very well for Wyoming as well as the rest of the Mountain West.
The Cowboys and UNLV Rebels were both given 5 seeds. That was the high ranking for any Mountain West school.
Here are the rest of the ranking for Mountain West schools:
#7 - New Mexico Lobos
#7 - San Diego State Aztecs
#9 - Boise State Broncos
#11 - Colorado State Rams
Six bids for a nine team league would be incredible. Conference play will be so crazy this year. Can't miss TV every week.
To help boost the case for the Cowboys inclusion, four teams that Wyoming has already defeated are also included in this first bracket.
#6 - Colorado
#11 - Illinois State
#16 - Southern University
#16 - UCSB
Southern and UC Santa Barbara are both projected to win their conferences at this time and thus qualify with the auto bid. That certainly helps the Pokes resume if that plays out.
There is plenty that can and will change with this bracket over the next three months. One loss can cause a huge drop for any team. Even though Wyoming hasn't managed to crack the top 25 polls it is nice to see them get such a high seed in the tournament. Having the Pokes make a run in the tourney would mean way more then being ranked in a poll.
Currently as a five seed Wyoming would play the 12 seed which would be the winner of a Iowa State and North Carolina first round game. That would be quite the opening round for the Cowboys.
Enjoy this time Poke fans and let's hope that it continues.
In other news the list of undefeated teams shrunk again last night when New Mexico downed Cincinnati by one point.