Best guess at the NCAA field: Who's in, who's out?

Sometimes I just shake my head when ESPN's Joe Lunardi and the others around the country spend countless hours in January breaking down which teams should qualify for the 68-team NCAA tournament. It's kind of like imagining how a Jenga game will unfold before you pull the wooden pieces out of the box.

If there's one giant problem with college basketball these days it's that everybody is in too big of a rush to get to March Madness. Yes, filling out brackets for your office pool is awesome. But the random Tuesday night game in late January gets discarded as irrelevant, especially in the low-major conferences. Why should anybody care that Iona twice beat Fairfield in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season when Fairfield upsets Iona in the MAAC tournament? Iona now could miss the NCAA tournament after a 15-3 league record, two games better than second-place Loyola (Md.).

Conference tournaments are exciting but carry too much weight in deciding who advances to the NCAA tournament. The results erode the regular season's importance, and the public's interest goes with it.

"I remember it happened a couple years ago, I was watching a game, it was - I want to say the first or second week of January - and they were already having Joe Lunardi's picks, and I'm thinking, 'This is ridiculous, it's too early,'" Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. "We're still in the middle of the conference race. You don't even know who's going to finish one through eight, and it's too early for that. I just think there's too much emphasis put on that.

"Maybe it's fun for the fans to look and say, OK - because he changes it every day, the last four in, the last four out, all that kind of stuff, and it captures people's attention, so it's not going to go away - but I think there's too much emphasis placed on it."

Now don't get me wrong: I think Lunardi does a fabulous job of charting the season's ebbs and flows. I just think the appropriate time to start plotting the 68-team field is a month before the tournament. With that, I'll attempt to put mine together six days before the bracket is released.

EAST/BOSTON REGION

1. Syracuse vs. Long Island-Brooklyn/Savannah State winner, Pittsburgh

8. New Mexico vs. 9. Memphis, Pittsburgh

4. Wisconsin vs. 13. Bucknell, Nashville, Tenn.

5. Florida vs. 12. Davidson, Nashville, Tenn.

3. Baylor vs. 14. Belmont, Albuquerque, N.M.

6. Creighton vs. 11. BYU, Albuquerque, N.M.

7. Notre Dame vs. 10. Oregon, Greensboro, N.C.

2. Duke vs. 15. Stony Brook, Greensboro, N.C.

SOUTH/ATLANTA

1. North Carolina vs. 16. Texas-Arlington, Greensboro, N.C.

8. Vanderbilt vs. 9. Nevada, Greensboro, N.C.

4. UNLV vs. 13. Long Beach State, Albuquerque, N.M.

5. Temple vs. 12. Connecticut/Northwestern winner, Albuquerque, N.M.

3. Marquette vs. 14. UNC-Asheville, Omaha, Neb.

6. Iowa State vs. 11. Southern Miss, Omaha, Neb.

7. St. Mary's vs. 10. Oral Roberts, Pittsburgh

2. Ohio State vs. 15. Akron, Pittsburgh

MIDWEST/ST. LOUIS

1. Kentucky vs. 16. Loyola (Md.)/Mississippi Valley State winner, Louisville, Ky.

8. Cincinnati vs. 9. Purdue, Louisville, Ky.

4. Murray State vs. 13. St. Louis, Portland, Ore.

5. Washington vs. 12. Iona, Portland, Ore.

3. Michigan vs. 14. Virginia Commonwealth, Nashville, Tenn.

6. Louisville vs. 11. Virginia, Nashville, Tenn.

7. California vs. 10. San Diego State, Louisville, Ky.

2. Missouri vs. 15. Denver, Louisville, Ky.

WEST/PHOENIX

1. Kansas vs. 16. Montana, Omaha, Neb.

8. Miami vs. 9. West Virginia, Omaha, Neb.

4. Wichita State vs. 13. Drexel, Columbus, Ohio

5. Indiana vs. 12. Xavier/Mississippi State winner, Columbus, Ohio

3. Georgetown vs. 14. Harvard, Portland, Ore.

6. Gonzaga vs. 11. Alabama, Portland, Ore.

7. Florida State vs. 10. Kansas State, Columbus, Ohio

2. Michigan State vs. 15. Valparaiso, Columbus, Ohio