PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 29, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Belmont	Drake	-0.2
Canisius	Manhattan	5.1
Cleveland St.	IUPUI	19.8
East Carolina	Wichita St.	-1.8
Fairfield	Rider	1.6
George Mason	Saint Joseph’s	6.6
Illinois Chicago	Bradley	9.8
Illinois St.	Southern Illinois	-5.3
Iona	Quinnipiac	7.7
Iowa	Rutgers	1.2
Lehigh	Boston U.	1.9
Marist	Siena	-4.5
Penn St.	Michigan	3.6
Purdue	Michigan St.	8.7
Robert Morris	Oakland	2.8
SMU	South Florida	1.1
St. John’s	Georgetown	13.2
Tulsa	Memphis	-13.1
UNC Greensboro	Furman	0.4
Villanova	Providence	-0.6
Youngstown St.	Detroit	8.3

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, January 26, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Abilene Christian	Grand Canyon	-4.9
Appalachian St.	Georgia St.	5.7
Bellarmine	Eastern Kentucky	-0.7
Cal Poly	Long Beach St.	-3.3
Cal St. Bakersfield	UC Davis	-4.7
Cal St. Fullerton	UC Irvine	-2.8
Cal St. Northridge	UC San Diego	0.9
Central Arkansas	North Florida	-3.2
Central Connecticut St.	Merrimack	2.7
Eastern Washington	Idaho St.	9.5
Elon	Hofstra	-11.7
Fairleigh Dickinson	St. Francis (PA)	2.1
Florida Atlantic	Middle Tennessee	9.5
Florida Intl.	Western Kentucky	-3.2
Hampton	Delaware	-7.9
Idaho	Weber St.	-2.0
Incarnate Word	McNeese St.	-0.1
Jacksonville St.	Lipscomb	-3.6
James Madison	Coastal Carolina	12.4
Kennesaw St.	Austin Peay	9.5
Lamar	Texas A&M-Commerce	-6.1
Liberty	Stetson	11.2
Louisiana	Troy	3.3
Loyola Marymount	Portland	7.5
Marshall	Louisiana Monroe	16.7
Memphis	SMU	14.9
Michigan	Purdue	-4.7
Michigan St.	Iowa	1.7
Morehead St.	Little Rock	7.2
Mount St. Mary’s	Fairfield	-0.1
North Alabama	Jacksonville	-4.2
North Carolina A&T	Drexel	-2.8
North Texas	UTSA	18.9
Northern Kentucky	Green Bay	18.2
Northwestern St.	Houston Christian	13.0
Oral Roberts	Denver	16.8
Oregon	Colorado	3.2
Oregon St.	Utah	-8.7
Pepperdine	San Diego	3.7
Portland St.	Montana St.	-3.2
Queens	Florida Gulf Coast	0.1
Radford	Longwood	1.6
Rice	Charlotte	-0.9
Sacramento St.	Montana	0.3
Sacred Heart	Long Island	13.2
Sam Houston	Seattle	6.1
South Alabama	Old Dominion	2.4
Southeast Louisiana	New Orleans	8.8
Southeast Missouri St.	Tennessee St.	5.9
Southern Indiana	Eastern Illinois	10.3
Southern Miss.	Arkansas St.	14.4
Southern Utah	Utah Valley	-0.1
St. Thomas	South Dakota St.	-0.3
Tarleton St.	Utah Tech	3.0
Tennessee Tech	SIU Edwardsville	-2.4
Texas A&M-CC	Nicholls St.	2.6
Texas St.	Georgia Southern	3.2
Towson	Northeastern	9.7
UAB	Louisiana Tech	8.9
UMKC	Omaha	6.9
UNC Wilmington	Monmouth	19.5
USC	UCLA	-6.0
UT Martin	Lindenwood	9.3
Wagner	St. Francis (NY)	10.5
Washington	Arizona St.	-1.9
Washington St.	Arizona	-4.1
Western Illinois	South Dakota	4.2
William & Mary	Stony Brook	3.7
Wright St.	Milwaukee	1.8

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 15, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Canisius	Siena	-2.5
Connecticut	Saint John’s	13.2
East Carolina	South Florida	0.2
Iona	Rider	13.0
Iowa	Maryland	3.9
Michigan	Northwestern	2.8
Missouri St.	Indiana St.	0.8
Mount St. Mary’s	Quinnipiac	-4.3
Niagara	Marist	7.8
Rutgers	Ohio St.	3.6
Saint Peter’s	Fairfield	0.9
Temple	Memphis	-6.0
Xavier	Marquette	3.1

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date	1/13/2023
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Kansas	Purdue	Houston	Alabama
2	Tennessee	UCLA	Connecticut	Arizona
3	Texas	Kansas St.	Gonzaga	Xavier
4	Iowa St.	Marquette	Virginia	Miami (Fl)
5	Arkansas	San Diego St.	TCU	Duke
6	Baylor	Auburn	Rutgers	Providence
7	Saint Mary’s	Ohio St.	Missouri	Illinois
8	North Carolina	North Carolina St.	Michigan St.	Florida Atlantic
9	Wisconsin	New Mexico	Arizona St.	Maryland
10	West Virginia	Northwestern	Charleston	Clemson
11	Creighton	Utah St.	Penn St.	Iowa	Indiana
12	Kent St.	Dayton	Utah Valley	Memphis	Mississippi St.
13	Iona	Oral Roberts	Liberty	Indiana St.
14	UC-Irvine	Princeton	UMass Lowell	Troy
15	Samford	Colgate	Longwood	SIU Edwardsville
16	Eastern Washington	Youngstown St.	Southern	Texas A&M-CC	Fairleigh Dickinson	Norfolk St.

Last 4 Byes: Clemson, Creighton, Utah St., Penn St.

Last 4 In: Iowa, Indiana, Memphis, Mississippi St.

First 4 Out: Virginia Tech, Boise St., Pittsburgh, Central Florida

Next 4 Out: Nevada, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Oklahoma St.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, January 12, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Appalachian St.	Georgia Southern	4.0
Arkansas St.	Texas St.	-3.7
Austin Peay	Lipscomb	1.2
Bellarmine	Stetson	0.8
BYU	Gonzaga	-6.0
Denver	North Dakota St.	0.8
Detroit	Youngstown St.	-2.8
Eastern Illinois	SIU Edwardsville	-8.4
Eastern Kentucky	Florida Gulf Coast	-4.1
Georgia St.	Troy	-3.3
Grand Canyon	UT Arlington	12.8
Green Bay	Wright St.	-9.3
Houston Christian	Texas A&M-Commerce	-5.3
Incarnate Word	New Orleans	0.8
Iowa	Michigan	5.6
IUPUI	Purdue Ft. Wayne	-16.6
Jacksonville St.	North Florida	0.2
Kennesaw St.	Jacksonville	1.4
Lamar	Nicholls St.	-10.7
Liberty	North Alabama	17.1
Long Beach St.	Cal Poly	7.5
Louisiana Monroe	Louisiana	-6.9
Marshall	Southern Miss.	6.5
Milwaukee	Northern Kentucky	2.5
Montana	Weber St.	4.7
Montana St.	Idaho St.	10.0
Northwestern St.	McNeese St.	7.5
Oakland	Robert Morris	1.9
Ohio St.	Minnesota	18.5
Old Dominion	Coastal Carolina	5.8
Omaha	North Dakota	4.3
Oral Roberts	Western Illinois	14.7
Oregon	Arizona St.	3.0
Oregon St.	Arizona	-15.9
Portland	San Francisco	-2.0
Portland St.	Northern Arizona	6.7
Queens	Central Arkansas	12.0
Sacramento St.	Northern Colorado	5.3
Saint Mary’s	Loyola Marymount	13.0
San Diego	Pepperdine	1.3
Seattle	New Mexico St.	3.1
South Alabama	James Madison	-5.3
Southeast Missouri St.	Lindenwood	7.6
Southern Indiana	Little Rock	7.8
Southern Utah	Sam Houston	-2.6
Stony Brook	Drexel	-5.3
Tennessee St.	UT Martin	2.3
Tennessee Tech	Morehead St.	0.3
Texas A&M-CC	Southeastern Louisiana	7.5
UCLA	Utah	11.2
UMKC	St. Thomas	0.4
UNC Asheville	Longwood	-1.7
USC	Colorado	1.5
Utah Tech	Stephen F. Austin	-0.6
Washington	Stanford	1.1

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 8, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Albany	UMass Lowell	-10.7
American	Boston	5.3
Arizona St.	Washington	8.6
Bryant	UMBC	5.9
Central Florida	SMU	12.1
Cincinnati	Houston	-10.2
Eastern Kentucky	Liberty	-9.1
Holy Cross	Loyola (MD)	2.0
Indiana	Northwestern	7.7
Lafayette	Bucknell	1.1
Maine	NJIT	5.8
Manhattan	Niagara	-3.3
Marist	Mount St. Mary’s	-2.0
Maryland	Ohio St.	-1.2
Navy	Lehigh	9.0
New Hampshire	Vermont	-6.5
Northern Kentucky	Detroit	2.9
Penn St.	Purdue	-5.3
Quinnipiac	Iona	-6.6
Rutgers	Iowa	6.7
Saint Peter’s	Canisius	2.2
Siena	Rider	4.2
South Florida	Wichita St.	-0.2
Wright St.	Oakland	6.2

PiRates Take On NCAA Tournament Expansion

There has been talk of expanding the NCAA Tournament from the current 68 teams up to potentially 90. We do not think that is a great option, but we do believe that expanding by four to 72 would be worthwhile. Enough new schools have been added to the ranks of Division I since the tournament expanded from 64 to 65 to 68.

We would alter how the tournament is seeded in a 72-team field. Because the new Division I teams are among the bottom of the now 363 teams in power ratings, the four new seeds should be bottom seeds. How about making the #15 and #16 seeds the bottom 16 automatic qualifiers in the Dance? That means there woud be eight, 15-seeds and eight, 16-seeds. All 15’s and 16’s would begin the tournament in a First 16 Round. The tournament could keep the Dayton site for half the games and maybe use Denver for the other half.

This would eliminate the First Four games for the bottom at-large teams, but there would now be more spots for the at-large.

This would also suffice in placing a power conference team that pulls off a bunch of upsets to win their conference tournament. A team that goes 10-21 in the regular season and then wins four games in four days to earn an automatic bid at 14-21 could now be placed in one of those 15-seeds as one of the weakest automatic qualifiers.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, January 5, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
UMBC	Albany	9.4
Holy Cross	American	-8.1
South Alabama	Arkansas St.	9.6
Loyola (MD)	Army	0.7
Vermont	Bryant	3.7
Loyola Marymount	BYU	-0.1
Cal St. Bakersfield	Cal Poly	1.6
UC Riverside	Cal St. Fullerton	6.4
Florida Int’l.	Charlotte	-8.0
Wichita St.	Cincinnati	-1.3
Appalachian St.	Coastal Carolina	3.5
St. Thomas	Denver	6.4
Towson	Drexel	5.2
Tennessee Tech	Eastern Illinois	3.4
Central Arkansas	Eastern Kentucky	-4.4
St. Francis (NY)	Fairleigh Dickinson	1.2
Austin Peay	Florida Gulf Coast	-5.2
Louisiana Monroe	Georgia St.	-1.9
San Francisco	Gonzaga	-10.0
Sam Houston St.	Grand Canyon	6.1
Purdue Ft. Wayne	Green Bay	20.0
UC San Diego	Hawaii	-6.5
Hampton	Hofstra	-10.6
Southeastern Louisiana	Houston Christian	9.8
Iowa	Indiana	0.1
Stetson	Jacksonville	-0.6
Liberty	Jacksonville St.	12.8
North Florida	Kennesaw St.	0.5
Boston U.	Lafayette	4.1
New Orleans	Lamar	6.1
Bucknell	Lehigh	7.5
Cal St. Northridge	Long Beach St.	-4.3
Central Connecticut St.	Long Island	8.9
Rice	Louisiana Tech	1.0
UMass Lowell	Maine	12.6
Georgia Southern	Marshall	-7.4
Rutgers	Maryland	5.8
UTSA	Middle Tennessee	-9.3
Cleveland St.	Milwaukee	4.8
Northern Arizona	Montana	-3.0
Northern Colorado	Montana St.	-2.6
Colgate	Navy	6.7
Binghamton	New Hampshire	-0.8
Texas A&M Commerce	Nicholls St.	-2.2
Lipscomb	North Alabama	6.3
Western Kentucky	North Texas	-4.2
William & Mary	Northeastern	0.4
McNeese St.	Northwestern St.	-3.4
Troy	Old Dominion	4.3
Western Illinois	Omaha	4.1
Colorado	Oregon	2.2
Utah	Oregon St.	16.4
San Diego	Pacific	7.3
Eastern Washington	Portland St.	5.4
Ohio St.	Purdue	2.2
Bellarmine	Queens	-0.7
Youngstown St.	Robert Morris	8.1
Idaho	Sacramento St.	-1.8
Merrimack	Sacred Heart	0.3
Pepperdine	Santa Clara	-1.2
UT Rio Grande Valley	Seattle	-7.1
Houston	SMU	22.4
North Dakota	South Dakota	-1.7
North Dakota St.	South Dakota St.	-2.2
UT Martin	Southeast Missouri St.	1.5
Morehead St.	Southern Indiana	1.5
Louisiana	Southern Miss.	1.2
Tarleton St.	Southern Utah	0.3
Monmouth	Stony Brook	-2.6
SIU Edwardsville	Tennessee St.	7.5
James Madison	Texas St.	14.8
Florida Atlantic	UAB	2.6
UC Davis	UC Irvine	-3.7
UCLA	USC	14.1
Cal Baptist	Utah Tech	3.4
UT Arlington	Utah Valley	-7.4
Stonehill	Wagner	-0.3
Arizona	Washington	17.7
Arizona St.	Washington St.	5.1

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date	1/2/2023
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Purdue	Houston	Connecticut	Kansas
2	Tennessee	Arizona	Alabama	UCLA
3	Texas	Virginia	Gonzaga	Arkansas
4	Duke	Baylor	Indiana	West Virginia
5	Ohio St.	Miami (Fla.)	Xavier	Wisconsin
6	Auburn	Kentucky	North Carolina	Iowa St.
7	San Diego St.	Virginia Tech	Illinois	Mississippi St.
8	Maryland	Marquette	Saint Mary’s	Missouri
9	New Mexico	Memphis	TCU	Kansas St.
10	Creighton	Texas Tech	Utah	Florida Atlantic
11	Penn St.	Utah St.	Oklahoma	Michigan St.	Rutgers	Arizona St.
12	Charleston	Kent St.	Iona	Dayton
13	James Madison	Indiana St.	UC-Irvine	Oral Roberts
14	UMass Lowell	Liberty	Princeton	Colgate
15	Utah Valley	UNC Greensboro	Northern Kentucky	Eastern Washington
16	Longwood	SIU Edwardsville	Grambling	Texas A&M CC	Norfolk St.	St. Francis PA

Last Four Byes: Texas Tech, Utah, Penn St., Utah St.

Last Four In: Oklahoma, Michigan St., Rutgers, Arizona St.

First Four Out: Oklahoma St., Iowa, UAB, North Carolina St.

Next Four Out: Providence, Wake Forest, Northwestern, LSU

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 1, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Canisius	Mount St. Mary’s	0.2
Dartmouth	Cornell	-7.2
DePaul	Providence	-4.3
Evansville	Murray St.	-6.1
Fairfield	Siena	-2.5
Georgetown	Butler	-3.0
Iona	Saint Peter’s	17.3
Manhattan	Quinnipiac	-5.7
Michigan	Maryland	-2.0
Missouri St.	Drake	0.2
Northwestern	Ohio St.	-1.8
Penn St.	Iowa	1.5
SMU	Tulsa	6.8
Southern Illinois	Belmont	3.5
Temple	Cincinnati	-3.3
Tulane	Memphis	-5.1
UMBC	Vermont	-0.5
Valparaiso	Indiana St.	-7.0
Washington	UCLA	-11.4
Washington St.	USC	1.6

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, December 29, 2022

Thursday, December 29, 2022
Home	Visitor	Spread
Bellarmine	Liberty	-6.5
Butler	Providence	1.8
Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	-1.5
Cal Poly	Cal St. Northridge	4.1
California	Utah	-10.6
Charleston	Hampton	19.0
Charlotte	Middle Tennessee	3.7
Cincinnati	Tulane	6.6
Cornell	Binghamton	14.8
Cal St. Fullerton	UC Santa Barbara	-3.6
Delaware	Hofstra	-0.9
Denver	UMKC	2.9
DePaul	Georgetown	5.2
Detroit	Green Bay	15.2
Drake	Valparaiso	15.4
Drexel	Elon	12.4
E. Illinois	Lindenwood	3.4
Fairleigh Dickinson	Merrimack	4.1
Furman	VMI	15.5
Georgia Southern	South Alabama	-3.1
Gardner Webb	Charleston Southern	10.3
Georgia St.	James Madison	-8.8
Grand Canyon	Cal Baptist	6.5
Howard	La Salle	0.2
Idaho St.	N. Arizona	-0.7
Illinois	Bethune Cookman	28.6
Indiana St.	Evansville	13.3
Louisiana Tech	UTSA	12.3
Long Beach St.	UC San Diego	9.4
Little Rock	UT Martin	-1.4
Long Island	Wagner	-7.2
Longwood	High Point	5.8
Marshall	Appalachian St.	10.3
Maryland	UMBC	19.4
Memphis	South Florida	16.0
Michigan	Central Michigan	20.3
Montana	Eastern Washington	3.3
Montana St.	Idaho	10.9
Murray St.	Southern Illinois	-0.5
Northern Kentucky	Wright St.	1.1
Omaha	Oral Roberts	-11.5
Nebraska	Iowa	-4.1
North Texas	Florida Atlantic	0.4
Northeastern	North Carolina A&T	3.9
Northwestern	Brown	16.0
Oakland	Milwaukee	-1.4
Ohio St.	Alabama A&M	27.4
Old Dominion	Arkansas St.	10.6
Pacific	BYU	-7.4
Penn St.	Delaware St.	30.8
Portland	Loyola Marymount	1.6
Presbyterian	Campbell	-2.8
Purdue	Florida A&M	34.1
Queens	Austin Peay	6.3
Robert Morris	Purdue Ft. Wayne	-2.8
South Dakota St.	Western Illinois	7.2
Sacred Heart	Stonehill	3.8
Saint Mary’s	San Diego	16.4
Santa Clara	San Francisco	0.7
USC Upstate	Winthrop	-1.9
Stephen F. Austin	Abilene Christian	3.0
SIU-Edwardsville	Tennessee Tech	10.0
Southern Indiana	Southeast Missouri St.	3.6
Southern Miss.	Troy	3.3
South Dakota	St. Thomas	-2.1
St. Francis PA	Central Connecticut	2.7
Stanford	Colorado	1.9
Tarleton St.	UT Arlington	7.5
Tennessee St.	Morehead St.	2.2
Texas St.	Louisiana Monroe	9.3
The Citadel	Chattanooga	-6.7
UAB	UTEP	15.8
UC Riverside	Cal St. Bakersfield	10.0
UNC Asheville	Radford	2.3
Utah Tech	UT Rio Grande Valley	9.4
Utah Valley	Sam Houston	-1.4
Western Carolina	UNC Greensboro	-3.9
Western Kentucky	Rice	5.5
Weber St.	Northern Colorado	2.9
Wofford	ETSU	8.0
Youngstown St.	Cleveland St.	7.0