7/7/17: USA Today Bracketologist Shelby Mast

Send us a text We decided to bring our dear friend and resident WRNL bracketologist Shelby Mast in to discuss why he has the Cyclones in the field as an 8 seed and just how accurate these brackets are. During our discussion we explored why the top seeds remain the top seeds year in and year out, and how you can make somewhat accurate predictions this far out. While Iowa State is losing a bunch of talent, other schools are in the same boat. Some teams like TCU and Iowa are returning a lot of talent, yet TCU is in the field and Iowa is still on the wrong side of the bubble. Why is that? It is easy to predict where the blue bloods will end up in the field next year. The hard part is determining how teams going through coaching changes and roster overhauls (like Missouri) will finish the 2017-18 season. Every year the committee is seemingly moving the goalposts when it comes to assessing the resumes of bubble teams. We discussed what Shelby has heard will change this year in the selection room. Finally, we discussed whether the NCAA would ever consider moving the basketball season to the spring semester exclusively. As a March Madness guru, Shelby has a hard time envisioning May Madness working out.