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Records against top 16 by FightingIrishRadio

ND will have played 8 of the 16 teams slotted into the top four seeds in the four regions by the end of the regular season -- a number with the potential to go up in the ACC tournament. Right now, ND is 5-2 against the eight (W: Louisville, Oregon State, Iowa, Gonzaga, Marquette, L: UConn, Miami) with a road game remaining at NC State. So, a potential to go 6-2 vs the top 16 before the ACC tournament starts.

Louisville is currently 2-1 (W: UConn, Arizona State, L: ND) against these 16 teams -- with home games yet to be played against Miami and NC State -- they have the potential to go 4-1. Louisville will also have the chance to solidify its position in the ACC tournament against at least one and perhaps two of the current top 16.

Oregon is currently 3-0 (Arizona State, Stanford and Mississippi State) against this field with three regular season games remaining -- a home and home with Oregon State and at Arizona State. The Ducks could well go 6-0 against the top 16 in the regular season). And, they have the potential for more quality wins in the Pac 12 tournament.

Mississippi State stands at 2-1 (W: Marquette and South Carolina, L: Oregon) with one game left at South Carolina -- so a max of 3-1.

Baylor is 4-1 (W: UConn, Arizona State, South Carolina and at home vs Iowa State, L: Stanford) with a game at Iowa State remaining.

UConn is 2-2 (W: ND and South Carolina, L: Baylor and Louisville) against the 16 -- and no possibility to go higher. They have one fairly tough game remaining at UCF this weekend -- and after that, their strength of schedule will drop quite a bit given the weakness of their remaining conference opponents. The Huskies remaining games are against teams with current RPI's of 14 (UCF), 101, 146, 149, 230, 246.

Here are the current strength of schedules on Realtime RPI for ND and the five teams ahead of the Irish: 1) ND, 5) Baylor, 7) Louisville, 15) Oregon, 26) UConn, 41) Mississippi State.

I went through the schedules of the five teams currently ranked ahead of ND -- if I missed any of the other five playing one of the 16, please help me update this.

The ACC schedule worked out pretty well for Louisville this season. The Cardinals will have played four home games (UNC, Syracuse, Miami and NC State) and three away games (ND, Clemson and FSU) against the top half of the conference. ND will have played two home games (Louisville and FSU) and five on the road (Miami, UNC, Clemson, NC State and Syracuse).

If ND wins out through the ACC tournament, they will have a pretty strong case to move back to a one seed. However, if they can't move higher than a 2 seed, they have no one to blame but themselves for dropping games that they should have won with anything approaching their normal offensive output.