Bracketology 101

I continue to believe Georgia's NCAA Tournament situation is pretty simple:  one more regular season win gets them in (Missouri, Kentucky, or @Auburn).

That's one man's opinion, though, and hardly scientific.  The only opinion that matters is the collective opinion of the selection committee.  So what will they be looking at?

Jerry Palm is here to help.

The whole article is a good read, but I'll point out a few things of interest to Georgia fans.  Like this:

There is a common perception that how a team is playing at the end of the year is more important. Many people feel it should be. None of those people are on the committee. That used to be a factor, which is likely why many people still think it is. They used to track how teams performed in their last 12 games, but got rid of that several years ago. Now, it's hard to look at those team sheets and even determine how a team has done lately in your head because the dates of the games are not prominently displayed, or even formatted like a date. The committee is committed to the concept that every game counts equally no matter when it's played.

Because two of Georgia's worst losses came near the end of the season, this should be considered good news.  The losses to Auburn and South Carolina may be fresh in our minds, but they hold no additional weight just because they are recent.

Then there's this:

Injuries, suspensions, and things of that nature are reported separately, but rest assured, the committee knows all about whatever problems a team has had over the course of the season. It's not terribly important, though. In general, a team's profile is its profile. The committee will not assume a team would have won a game it lost had it been at full strength. They also will not ignore the game. There may be some slight seeding consideration given, but sometimes that doesn't even happen. Those adjustments tend to happen more to teams that have lost key players for the season rather than for a few games.

It's harder and harder to deny that injuries played at least some part in the losses to South Carolina (twice) and Auburn.  It may not seem like much, but if it's enough to move Georgia from, say, an 8 to a 7, that's enormous.

For fans, this is when it gets fun.  Georgia is playing for something, and that's exciting.  For players?  Tune it out.  Just win, baby.

[CBS Sports]