ESPN’s BPI NCAA Tournament simulation likes Ohio State and the Big Ten

ESPN simulated the NCAA men’s basketball tournament using its Basketball Power Index. It liked Ohio State and the Big Ten a lot.

We’ve seen a lot of simulation and opinion pieces out there predicting hypothetical scenarios of what would have happened in the men’s NCAA Tournament. And now we have another one from the worldwide leader in sports programming.

We’ve already reported on USA TODAY’s bold move of knocking the Buckeyes out of its mock tournament in the first round, and we’ve also looked at sportsline taking OSU into the Sweet Sixteen. But hey, ESPN’s BPI simulation takes it a step further.

According to its model, Ohio State gets all the way into the Elite Eight and almost makes it to the Final Four. Part of it has to do with the BPI’s love affair with the Big Ten, but if you look at almost any modeling out there, the Buckeyes’ metrics put them above the actual AP and USA TODAY rankings.

And yeah, with wins over Kentucky, Villanova, and Maryland this season, it’s not exactly stepping out on a limb. There was a legitimate shot for OSU to do some damage in the postseason as long as it continued to shoot the ball well and play solid defense.

But back to the simulation.

Ohio State’s path consisted of taking down Stephen F. Austin in the first round, then pulling a mild upset over No. 4 seed Louisville. It then knocked off No. 8 seed St. Mary’s who made a bit of a Cinderella run. But that’s where things ended.

In the Elite Eight, the Buckeyes lost to No. 6 seed Virginia after likely getting Wisconsin Badgered to death.

To play it all out because we’re sure you are interested, the Final Four in the BPI simulation included an odd quartet of Wisconsin, Maryland, BYU, and Virginia (that’s two No. 4 seeds vs. two No. 6 seeds). It has Wisconsin knocking off BYU for the national title which would have been a lot like watching paint dry on live television.

Highly unlikely if you ask me, but there you go — the ESPN BPI strikes again.