The teams below are displayed below on an S-curve, so they are ranked from left to right within each seeding line.  The italicized teams are ones predicted to win their conference tourney and gain an automatic bid to the dance.  For the conferences who currently have NCAA tourney teams, it is assumed that one of those teams will win their conference tourney.  If not, then a stolen bid would result, and the number of at-large bids would drop.

Also, just to clarify, my bracket projection is intended to project the NCAA Tournament field if it was chosen today.  Unlike some bracketologists, I am not trying to predict how each team will finish the season and then seed the teams based on that.  There is one slight exception to this rule, however, and that is that I have always chosen to award the projected automatic bid for each conference to my projected best team in that conference, and not the team who is currently leading the conference standings.   Given how unbalanced conference schedules are, it just seems like common sense to project that the best team in a conference will win the league championship, not the squad currently in first place.

Brad-ketology columns will be published at least twice a week (typically on Sundays and Fridays) and more often than that when it gets closer to tourney time.  This bracket projection has been updated through all games played on Sunday February 2nd.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Syracuse, Arizona, Villanova, Florida

2-seeds: Wichita State, Michigan State, San Diego State, Kansas

3-seeds: Creighton, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Duke

4-seeds: Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Oklahoma State

5-seeds: Oklahoma, Virginia, UMass, Ohio State

6-seeds: UCLA, Colorado, Texas, Saint Louis

7-seeds: Louisville, Minnesota, Memphis, Pittsburgh

8-seeds: George Washington, Iowa, UConn, Gonzaga

9-seeds: New Mexico, VCU, North Carolina, SMU

10-seeds: Southern Miss, Xavier, Kansas State, Providence

11-seeds: Arizona State, Providence, SMU, Oregon

12-seeds: Oregon, Baylor, Stanford, Tennessee, Harvard, Toledo

13-seeds: North Dakota State, Green Bay, Delaware, Belmont

14-seeds: Mercer, New Mexico State, Canisius, Georgia State

15-seeds: Stephen F. Austin, UC Santa Barbara, North Carolina Central, Vermont

16-seeds: American, Robert Morris, Northern Colorado, Davidson, Southern, Coastal Carolina

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: LSU, Harvard, Dayton, Indiana State

2-seeds: Brigham Young, Richmond, Georgetown, Indiana

3-seeds: Toledo, North Dakota State, Green Bay, Ole Miss

4-seeds: Clemson, St. Joe’s, Louisiana Tech, Delaware

5-seeds: Belmont, St. Mary’s, Boise State, Nebraska

6-seeds: Mercer, NC State, Maryland, Wake Forest

7-seeds: Illinois, Arkansas, Ohio, Washington

8-seeds: Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, West Virginia

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: St. John’s, Marquette, St. Bonaventure, Oregon State, La Salle, New Mexico State, Wyoming, Canisius, Georgia State, Akron, Miami (FL)