Bracketology (Cowboy Edition)

For those of you wondering if 9-7 or 8-8 will get OSU a ticket to the (now) 68-team dance in March here are your current projections. And yes, I realize it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, but who doesn’t love a little orange-colored speculation?

ESPN
Joe Lunardi has OSU as one his first four out along with Memphis, New Mexico, and Michigan State. My question: how is MSU on this list? Shouldn’t they be on the next next next next four out portion of Joe’s ballot? (ESPN)

Sports Illustrated
Andy Glockner doesn’t even have OSU as one of his first four out, stating, “the Pokes resurrected their chances by taking out Missouri (and then Oklahoma) at home. The next four will decide if those chances stay intact: at Nebraska, at Texas, vs. A&M, at Kansas.” He’s probably right, and unfortunately I’m not sure any of those will be wins now without Williams unless Keiton goes on some sort of Steph Curry-esque shooting barrage and hits 46 of his next 70 threes. (SI)

CBS
Jerry Palm has OSU higher than anyone at the 10-spot playing West Virginia in the first round. If this happened I wouldn’t even care about the outcome, I’d just want to travel to Tuscon for the possibility of Huggy, Ford, Gundy, and Holgorsen throwing back brews the night before the game. I’d glean at least four posts from that if I were to bear witness. (CBS)

Yahoo
Has OSU slotted in the 12-spot along with Richmond, Cleveland St., Duquesne, and Michigan State (seriously people, they’re 13-10!!). Remember there’s an extra 11-seed, an extra 12-seed, and two extra 16-seeds this year in the tournament so OSU would presumably be matched up against one of these other squads in the “first round.” (Yahoo)

Rush The Court
One of RTC’s last four in as they have OSU as a 12-seed playing another 12-seed Richmond in the aforementioned “first round” for the chance to play Vandy. (RTC)

Fox Sports
“Oklahoma State kept its at-large hopes alive with a win over Missouri last week.” Thanks for the in-depth analysis Fox. They have OSU as an 11-seed in the New Orleans region with Kansas and San Diego State as the top two seeds. A matchup with Kentucky, as predicted here, wouldn’t lack for story lines either. (Fox Sports)

My take
I would still argue that it’s going to take a 9-7 record + 1 Big 12 tournament win to get in. Which means…it’s going to take a minor miracle. I will say the one thing OSU has going for it right now is that, outside of Lawrence and Austin, there are a pack of relatively mediocre teams lining the middle of the Big 12. An unconvincing 5-4 conference record from Baylor is currently good for third place so you could argue that records won’t even matter by the end of the year and the NCAA will just take the league’s top five or six teams. That scenario could get rather intriguing, especially if KU and Texas keep hammering everyone else.