A new bracket is out and something remarkable has happened. For the first consecutive time this season, there are no changes to the top line of the bracket.
There certainly could be changes afoot this weekend with three of the four teams involved in Saturday's Big 12/SEC Challenge.
The big game, of course, is No. 4 seed Kentucky at Kansas, the No. 1 seed in the East Region . The tournament resume for the Wildcats is thinner than we are used to seeing by now. Their only questionable loss came at Notre Dame, which is squarely a bubble team. However, UK does not have the list of quality wins we normally see. The Wildcats blew out Tennessee at home and that's pretty much it. Their only other win against a team in the bracket came on Jan. 19 at Texas A&M, the last team in the bracket.
Kentucky has had some chances, but came up short in the season opener against No. 3 seed Duke and at overall No. 1 seed Auburn and No. 3 seed LSU. A win at Kansas would not only be the best of their season so far, but very likely the best of the season on Selection Sunday.
Auburn is hosting Oklahoma in what is a huge opportunity for the No. 10 seed Sooners to put some clearance between themselves and the bottom of the bracket.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
Tough schedule for Tide
Baylor, a No. 1 seed, is traveling to No. 7 seed Alabama, which is starting to suffer the effects of a very difficult schedule.
The Crimson Tide have a unique resume. This will already be their tenth Quad 1 game -- only Iowa State has as many -- but they also have no games against Quad 4 opponents. Arizona State has the next fewest with two.
A schedule like that gives Alabama more of a margin for error when it comes to making the field, but the Tide needs to stop losing games to teams like Missouri and Georgia.
USC sliding down bracket
USC continues to be ranked in the middle of the polls, but you have to wonder for how much longer. Regardless, the Trojans continue to slide down the bracket, this time after a loss at home to Stanford on Thursday. That gave the Cardinal a season sweep of the series. I have USC as a No. 9 seed and it is hard to justify much better than that considering their best win is over San Diego State, a team that is projected to the First Four.