BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – By its very nature, bracketology is speculative. It’s to be taken with a grain of salt at all times.

That goes triple for women’s basketball bracketology as there is nowhere near the same amount of coverage given to forecasting the women’s tournament as there is for the men’s version.

That said, bracketology offers an image of where a team is at a given time. It’s a fleeting image, like a reflection on the water that changes with a new ripple in the water.

In that vein, Indiana’s women’s basketball got a bit of a warning shot from the one bracketology site that updated its bracket this week.

ESPN updated its bracketology as it always does on Tuesday. Women’s bracketologist Charlie Crème had Indiana as one of the last teams in the field to receive a bye.

Crème has No. 9-seeded Indiana playing No. 8-seeded Creighton in the South Bend Regional. Crème has host Notre Dame playing Eastern Illinois in the other game. He has the winner going to the Birmingham Sweet 16 site.

Being one of the last byes in the field denotes being one of the last eight teams in the field. The last four teams in the field play each other in the play-in games at campus sites.

Indiana is mixed with a group including three Big Ten teams – Illinois and Minnesota are the others – that are listed as last four byes. Iowa and Washington are listed as last four teams in the field.

There’s good news and bad news in this for the Hoosiers. With half of the Big Ten season left, there’s a lot of jockeying to be done, but Indiana’s win at Iowa will serve them well if it comes to it. So will Monday’s road win at Washington.

Indiana’s home loss to Illinois has the opposite effect.

Indiana’s overall resume has strengths and weaknesses. The Hoosiers are No. 39 in the NET rankings – the last of four Big Ten teams (Illinois, Oregon, Iowa are the others) ranked 36-39.

Indiana has a 6-6 record in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games. It has two Quad 1 victories – the win against Baylor at Battle 4 Atlantis and the victory at Iowa on Jan. 12.

There are some key games to come for the Hoosiers. The NET parameters are something to keep in mind. The Quad parameters are different for women’s basketball than the men’s game.

Wins against teams ranked 1-25 in the NET at home are considered Quad 1 victories. The road range is much smaller. It’s a Quad 1 if a team gets a road win against a team ranked 1-45.

Quad 2 wins are 26-55 at home and 46-80 on the road.

Sunday’s home game against Nebraska counts as a Quad 2 game as the Cornhuskers are No. 33 in the NET.

Indiana has Quad 1 opportunities at NET No. 28 Minnesota on Feb. 9, at No. 30 Michigan on Feb. 12, at home against No. 14 Ohio State on Feb. 20, at No. 16 Michigan State on Feb. 23 and at home against No. 24 Maryland on Feb. 27.

If the Hoosiers win two of these games, they’re likely safe to the end. If they win more, they can start to move up the seed line. If they ran the table, they’d likely be a tournament host.

However, losses against borderline Quad 1-Quad 2 teams will sting. A home loss to Nebraska on Sunday would create more erosion.

Indiana is also not in a position where it can lose to any of the non-Quad 1-2 opponents left – Rutgers at home on Feb. 6 and the two contests against Purdue on Feb. 15 in Bloomington and on March 2 in West Lafayette.