I'd never heard of the website Bracket Project until just a few days ago - too bad, I would have been addicted to it.  But thanks to The Meaningful Collateral, they've steered me towards a very intriguing blog post.

Joe Lunardi, self-proclaimed originator of the study of brackets (or bracketology, as it's become so customary to say), has been going on and on about how he nailed all 65 teams correctly.  But if you look down in the comments section of the above post, you'll see that an astute viewer has noticed an unusual quirk.  As of 1 a.m. Sunday, Villanova was his third team out of the bracket.  By 3 p.m. Sunday, they were the third-to-last team in.

What could possibly have changed their status this much in a 14 hour span?  Lunardi made an off-hand remark of how 'Nova's 22 point loss to St. Joseph's didn't look as bad in hindsight, with St. Joe's making the finals of the A-10 tournament and all.  Really?  You're telling me that a St. Joe's loss made their win over Villanova look so impressive that the Wildcats deserved to leapfrog six teams?

Incidentally, you would think that Lunardi would be very familiar with the level of talent in the Philadelphia area universities, given that his full-time job is at...wait for it...St. Joseph's.  Hmmm.

What's making this even more curious is that a similar situation occured last year, when Arkansas inexplicably rose several spots in his draw on Sunday morning.  Could king bracketologist have an inside source within the committee feeding him these nuggets?  Obviously no one can say with 100% certainty, but these sure are awful amazing coincidences.