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 Thursday February 26th.
NCAA Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Kentucky, Virginia, Duke, Gonzaga
2-seeds: Villanova, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin
3-seeds: Maryland, Baylor, Utah, Iowa State
4-seeds: Northern Iowa, Wichita State, Oklahoma, Louisville
5-seeds: North Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas, Notre Dame
6-seeds: Georgetown, Butler, SMU, VCU
7-seeds: San Diego State, Providence, Oklahoma State, Colorado State
8-seeds: Indiana, Xavier, NC State, Dayton
9-seeds: Georgia, Temple, Michigan State, St. John’s
10-seeds: Ole Miss, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Texas A & M
11-seeds: Iowa, Texas, Old Dominion, LSU
12-seeds: Pittsburgh, Boise State, Oregon, Tulsa, Wofford, Iona
13-seeds: Harvard, Valpo, Eastern Washington, Murray State
14-seeds: Stephen F. Austin, Central Michigan, UC Davis, South Dakota State
15-seeds: William & Mary, Georgia State, High Point, Florida Gulf Coast
16-seeds: North Carolina Central, Texas Southern, Albany, New Mexico State, St. Francis (NY), Bucknell
NIT Tourney Field:
1-seeds: UCLA, Stanford, Purdue, Illinois
2-seeds: Brigham Young, Davidson, Miami-FL Wofford
3-seeds: Iona, UConn, Alabama, St. Mary’s
4-seeds: Rhode Island, Harvard, Valpo, Green Bay
5-seeds: Eastern Washington, UMass, Seton Hall, Murray State
6-seeds: Richmond, Minnesota, UTEP, Stephen F. Austin
7-seeds:Yale, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, Clemson
8-seeds: Arizona State, Memphis, Oregon State, Michigan
Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Tennessee, George Washington, Central Michigan, UC Davis, Toledo, Buffalo, South Dakota State
