Time for New Jersey bracketology: Where Seton Hall, Princeton and others stand

Before long, if they don’t slip up against Georgetown tonight, you’ll start to see Bracket Watch headlines ask if it’s time to Consider Seton Hall.

College football season is over. Congrats to Michigan (and South Dakota State at the FCS level). Let’s get serious now. We’re only 68 days from Selection Sunday.

I plan to spend a few of my forthcoming Tuesday issues for paid subscribers covering the NCAA Tournament chase and generally updating you on where New Jersey’s teams stand. It won’t be easy to write about the bracketology of a very small handful of teams without considering the competition they’re up against, so ultimately I’ll need to expand and explain where teams like Seton Hall and Rutgers stand in relation to their conference foes.

But the timing couldn’t be better to hone in on a single program, one that’s fresh off upsetting two ranked teams in a week and three in its four conference games.

They received 34 votes in Monday’s AP poll. You’re going to start seeing them get shoutouts in journalists’ power rankings. And before long, if they don’t slip up against Georgetown tonight, you’ll start to see Bracket Watch headlines ask if it’s time to Consider Seton Hall.

The Pirates had done almost nothing during nonconference season to garner real attention in bracketology columns. Now, it’s a different story. As of this morning, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi brought them into his “Next Four Out,” the eighth team that would get a “Thanks for playing” note from the committee. But take Brad Wachtel, for another example. He’s got Hall playing in the First Four after this weekend. The Athletic’s bracket column installed Seton Hall as the final team in after beating Providence.

So that’s where we’ll start, as they’re the New Jersey team with the likeliest shot of receiving an at-large bid on March 17.

Seton Hall

NET: 73; KenPom: 67; strength of record: 54

Quad 1: 3-2; Quad 2: 0-2; Quad 3: 2-1; Quad 4: 5-0

A quick primer for subscribers who may not know: NET, the NCAA Evaluation Tool, is the primary metric the selection committee refers to. NET helps break down a team’s wins into Quadrants 1-4; beating a top-30 NET team at home, a top-50 NET team on a neutral floor or a top-75 NET team on the road is a Quad 1 win, and so on down the line. KenPom’s ratings measure a team’s overall quality (how efficient they’re playing, adjusted for opponent) and strength of record is how it sounds: the difficulty factor of reaching the record you have against the schedule you faced. These are some but not all of the tools at the selection committee’s disposal.