Joe Lunardi has a lot to calculate in his bunker, prepping all of us for the NCAA tournament each spring.
But in the Jan. 9 edition of his constantly updated Bracketology, Lunardi has Texas Tech in a strange situation. The 12-2 Red Raiders are listed in both the “First Four Byes” section as well as the “Next Four Out.”
That means Lunardi’s math has Texas Tech as both a 10-seed in the South region as well as the seventh-to-last team on the March Madness bubble.
The Red Raiders just beat 20th-ranked Texas in a high-stakes Big Ten clash, a nice signature win on their resume. But it would be hard to tell what it did for their tourney odds if you were to look at Lunardi’s chart.
Texas Tech currently sits at No. 28 in KenPom’s college basketball rankings. That puts them in prime position for a tourney bid.
So Lunardi surely could have just mixed up the Red Raiders with a different program. But u/Aidanj927 pointed out the mistake four hours ago on the College Basketball sub-Reddit, and as of 5 p.m. ET, the list still contained the mistake.
With a matchup against perennial title contender Houston looming next week, Texas Tech has a chance to solidify its candidacy for March Madness soon.
Nobody on the team likely is looking at Bracketology (yet), but it’s a funny sight to imagine the team seeing itself in both columns. Let’s just hope by the time Selection Sunday comes around, the NCAA graphics team knows where to plop the Red Raiders to save their sanity.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.