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 Mondays 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 11th.
NCAA Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Oklahoma, Villanova, Kansas, Virginia
2-seeds: Oregon, Iowa, North Carolina, Maryland
3-seeds: Xavier, Miami-FL, West Virginia, Dayton
4-seeds: Michigan State, Iowa State, Southern California, Utah
5-seeds: Purdue, Texas, Texas A & M, Kentucky
6-seeds: Duke, Baylor, California, Notre Dame
7-seeds: Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, Oregon State
8-seeds: Providence, Arizona, Syracuse, Pittsburgh
9-seeds: Florida State, Indiana, Wichita State, Monmouth
10-seeds: St. Joe’s, UConn, Seton Hall, Michigan
11-seeds: George Washington, VCU, Washington Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Alabama
12-seeds: Gonzaga, Chattanooga, Valpo, San Diego State
13-seeds: Akron, William & Mary, Arkansas-Little Rock, South Dakota State
14-seeds: Stony Brook, Yale, UC-Irvine, Middle Tennessee
15-seeds: Belmont, New Mexico State, Stephen F. Austin, Montana
16-seeds: North Florida, UNC-Asheville, Hampton, Bucknell, Texas Southern, Fairleigh Dickinson
NIT Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Tulsa, St. Bonaventure, Cincinnati, Gonzaga
2-seeds: Butler, Kansas State, Vanderbilt, Valpo
3-seeds: Temple, Chattanooga, UCLA, San Diego State
4-seeds: LSU, Brigham Young, Clemson, Georgetown
5-seeds: Georgia, St. Mary’s, Akron, William & Mary
6-seeds: Davidson, Arkansas-Little Rock, South Dakota State, Stony Brook
7-seeds: Yale, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Stanford
8-seeds: UC-Irvine, Ohio State, UNC-Wilmington, Creighton
Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Boise State, Hawaii, Middle Tennessee, Princeton, Ole Miss, Houston, Marquette
William and Mary is in both the NCAA and NIT? UNCW is currently the top CAA team with 11 straight wins.
Jeff,
Yes, William & Mary’s inclusion in the NIT, like several other mid-major conference champs is just there to show where they would be seeded in case they lost in their conference tournament. Also, unlike other bracket projections, I project conference champs by who has the best overall tournament resume. Not just the first place team in that league. Up until this morning, William & Mary’s resume was still better than UNCW’s because of their remarkably low RPI. Now, after the Tribe’s most recent loss, the Seahawks finally have the better resume and will be projected as the CAA champ in my Monday morning edition of Brad-ketology.