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It's late in the season, so let's get right to it. USA Today's bracket has been sneaky accurate for years now, and they have Xavier avoiding Dayton by virtue of picking up a 11 seed in the Midwest. That would put them against Kentucky, which wouldn't be a nightmare draw right now.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has been sneaky inaccurate for years now. He is the face of Bracketology for people who pay attention only at this time of year and also probably believe that the Big East is dead, but he's basically about an average bracketologist, no better or worse than the studious dudes who still live in their moms' basements. Anyway, he sees Xavier playing BYU in Dayton with an 11 seed and the chance to play VCU on the line.
Jerry Palm is also a veteran bracketologist with a national following, and he is even less accurate than Lunardi. He has X in the same position, except facing SMU (again for a shot at Virginia Commonwealth). The joke will kind of be on me if Xavier ends up in that 11-seed play-in game, but it won't change the trend of those two guys being right more by luck than judgment as a general rule. If you see anyone citing those two to the exclusion of anyone else, kindly point them to the Bracket Project's bracketologist rankings, which will explain who they should be looking at instead.
Speaking of the Bracket Project, they have their own bracket as well and it is usually fairly accurate. They're looking at Xavier like an 11 but not a participant in the play-in game. Their 6s are Baylor, VCU, UNC, and UK, and Xavier would be playing one of those.
Finally, there's the Bracket Matrix. It is an aggregation of the bracketologies of over 100 sources from all over the internet. It's also one of the most accurate predictors of where a team will actually land on Selection Sunday. It has Xavier as an 11, facing Nebraska in the play-in game.
