Best and worst nonconference résumés

— -- It's a pretty narrow column on my spreadsheet, but an extremely important one. The heading (T68) is both elegant and cryptic. It's my shorthand for a given team's record against the top 68 in the country at that point in time.

The ingredients of T68 will change throughout the season (home, road, neutral, etc.), as will the composition of the 68 itself. But the bottom line is easy to understand: If you haven't played, and beaten, at least a few opponents in this column, your name won't be among the 68 we hear on Selection Sunday.

This becomes an even more important consideration as the end of nonconference play draws near. We can already determine which potential NCAA tournament teams have it made with respect to "quality wins" and which are putting most (if not all) of their eggs in the basket of league play.

The biggest "winners" to date

The Wildcats' r?sum? is solid with the following wins: Purdue (road), Central Florida (neutral court), Wake Forest (neutral), Notre Dame (neutral) and Temple (home). If the Cats win another Big East regular-season title, no worse than a No. 2 seed awaits them.

The Bears have what amounts to the nation's best r?sum? with victories over Oregon (home), VCU (neutral), Michigan (neutral), Louisville (neutral) and Xavier (home). If they can somehow dethrone Kansas in the Big 12, talk of a No. 1 seed could become a reality.

The Bulldogs, with wins over San Diego State (home), Florida (neutral), Iowa State (neutral) and Arizona (neutral), have caught at least two of their signature victims at less than full strength. However, there is no doubting the Zags overall, and another protected seed is well within their reach.

Lurking a bit below the radar in a crowded Big East are some other Bulldogs, in their best national position since the departure of Brad Stevens. Butler has taken out Northwestern (home), Arizona (neutral), Utah (road) and Cincinnati (home), providing a nice cushion if the conference season gets dicey.

Honorable mentions

UCLA Bruins (T68: 3-0)

The Bruins sit just behind the national leaders with three T68 victories -- Texas A&M (neutral), Kentucky (road) and Michigan (home) -- and the one at Rupp Arena should count twice!

Only two big-time wins for the Hoosiers, but they are massive: Kansas (neutral) and North Carolina (home). Unfortunately, the rest of the nonconference schedule is a seed-killer.

No one has played more top-68 games than the Gators, although their wins over St. Bonaventure (home), Seton Hall (neutral) and Miami (neutral) aren't as notable as the losses to Gonzaga (neutral), Duke (neutral) and Florida State (road). The committee is well aware that Florida hasn't had an actual home court in nonconference play.

Missing in action

The Boilermakers are the only ranked team with a donut where it counts, despite close losses to Villanova (home) and Louisville (road). Purdue could really use a win over Notre Dame on Saturday before Big Ten play begins in earnest.

The Flyers have seen their best victims (Alabama, New Mexico) fall out of our top 68 and, like most of the Atlantic 10 contenders, are running out of chances to impress. Who could have imagined the coming matchup with Northwestern as a legitimate "bubble" game?

Want to know why an otherwise solid Marquette team isn't in our NCAA field? Look only as far as losses to Michigan (neutral), Pitt (neutral) and Wisconsin (home), with no corresponding quality in the win column. Wins over Vanderbilt and Georgia aren't good enough to save the Golden Eagles at this point.

Wake is in the same boat as Marquette, with losses to Villanova (neutral) and Northwestern (road). Even if the Demon Deacons win Saturday at Xavier, it's going to take double-digit ACC wins for them to make the tournament. And that hasn't happened for Wake Forest since 2009.

Finally, here's my list of the most significant nonconference games remaining in 2016. Not necessarily the most attractive (e.g., Kentucky vs. North Carolina), but those most likely to impact the eventual NCAA bracket in March.

Georgetown at Syracuse (Saturday)

At best, the Hoyas are a bubble team in desperate need of some r?sum? juice. What I'd add -- very reluctantly, given events last March -- is that the Orange are also much closer to being a bubble team than they might think.

Dayton vs. Northwestern (Saturday)

In its never-ending quest to ends its never-ending NCAA tournament drought, Northwestern currently sits on our "first four out" list. To change that, the Wildcats need to beat a legitimate tournament team outside the Big Ten (existing victims Texas and Wake Forest aren't likely to make it).

Stanford at SMU (Monday)

A year ago, the Pac-12 gamed the system well enough to land seven NCAA bids. Stanford wasn't one of them, costing former coach Johnny Dawkins his job and putting undue pressure on this season's non-league slate. One signature win (Seton Hall on a neutral floor) won't be enough unless the Cardinal post a winning Pac-12 mark for the first time since 2014.

UNC Wilmington at Clemson (Dec. 28)

This year's Monmouth could be, well, Monmouth, or it could be Middle Tennessee or UNC Wilmington. Clemson is the best team on UNCW's schedule and would be an essential piece to a potential at-large r?sum?. The Tigers, meanwhile, are currently team No. 69 and can ill-afford to drop a dangerous home game to a mid-major.