Ramifications? You want to know the Ramifications? Fine!

Here's what happened tonight:

Purdue beat Ohio State in Columbus. Last night, my friend and I debated for 2.5 hours coming up with a consensus bracket (which can be found here), and some time was spent debating Purdue vs. Syracuse on the 1-line. One of Purdue's knocks was that they wouldn't end up with any big road wins. Not anymore...

Saint Louis beat Rhode Island. With that, I think its safe to say farewell to the Rams, whose weak out-of-conference schedule has done them in once again. (I had them out with the assumption that they would win out their conference schedule.

Duquesne beat Charlotte. This seems like it would hurt Charlotte's bubble chances a lot, but remember - bad losses don't count that much. The Texas Tech-Charlotte discussion will be an interesting one.

Utah beat UNLV, and suddenly UNLV doesn't look like a sure tournament team. They are now the same conference record as SDSU, and are banking solely on their 4 top-50 wins and their win at New Mexico. I still think they are in, but they can't drop anymore games.

Wofford wins at Davidson, all but ensuring themselves a bye in the Southern Conference tournament.

Louisville beat Notre Dame, Notre Dame's third straight heart-breaking loss. No real ramifications, other than the near-heart attacks they are giving me.
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Darnit UConn, you're supposed to be bad!

Well, obviously UConn is going to show up here next week... So, what caused various movements in my seed list over the 9 days? (That is, what didn't I account for?)

Illinois (IN) beat Michigan St, beat Wisconsin at Kohl… what more could you ask for?
Louisville’s (IN) upset victory at Syracuse (Down 1) gave them the big win they needed to push up into the tournament, and the fact that it was on the road is the icing on top. That loss knocked Syracuse off the 1-line.
William & Mary (IN) was a change of opinion… I mean, 5-3 against the RPI Top 50, with wins at Wake Forest and Maryland… that’s pretty legit, in my opinion.
Richmond (Up 4) destroyed Temple and then went on the road and beat Rhode Island (OUT). The first is a good win, while the second is a decent win on the road. It also served as the final blow to Rhode Island’s fragile resume – 24-5 isn’t good enough when your best win is against Oklahoma St, and you’ve had several opportunities for better.
Tennessee (Up 3) impressed me in their loss at Kentucky, enough so that I decided that they will beat Kentucky when they come to Knoxville. Beat one one seed, you might be a fluke. Beat two one seeds, you’re the real deal. Obviously, if Tennessee loses to Kentucky, expect them to drop back down.
Purdue’s (Up 3) rise up the charts is due to two things. First, obviously they went out and beat Michigan St (Down 2) this past Saturday in East Lansing. Big wins are good, and this one means that I now have them tied for first in the conference, rather than in 3rd place. More importantly, however, they now have two road/neutral wins against top teams – and the committee like that. Michigan State, however, drops to only 3-4 against the RPI top 50, and as such cannot be considered to have an elite resume.
Northeastern (OUT) didn’t do anything to hurt themself. However, I decided that winning a conference that has no team above the 10 line is not in and of itself a good argument for inclusion, even if that conference seems to be on track for multiple bids. Expect this to be a big debate in the future.
Dayton (OUT) lost to SLU, which means I am now projecting them to finish 6th in the Atlantic 10. The A-10 is not quite strong enough to get 10 in. (Obviously, a change of heart from last week)
BYU (Down 4) is also a matter of changing opinions – I now think that their weak win total, and absence of strong wins will lead them to be seen as outside of the top tiers of teams.
Charlotte (Down 3), Temple (Down 2), and Xavier (Down 1) are a reaction to my overrating of the A-10 last week.
Texas (Down 2) lost to Oklahoma, then lost to Kansas. While I was expecting the former (since it was a classic trap game), I was not expecting the latter. This had a negative effect on the factors that I use to make my decisions.
Cornell (Down 1) and Northern Iowa (Down 1) were the result of weekend upsets, at UPenn and Bradley respectively.
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