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 Sunday February 14th.
NCAA Tourney Field:
1-seeds: Kansas, Oklahoma, Villanova, Virginia
2-seeds: Iowa, North Carolina, Xavier, Oregon
3-seeds: Miami-FL, Maryland, West Virginia, Dayton
4-seeds: Michigan State, Iowa State, Utah, Kentucky
5-seeds: Duke, Purdue, Texas, Notre Dame
6-seeds: Texas A & M, Southern California, California, Colorado
7-seeds: Baylor, Providence, Arizona, South Carolina
8-seeds: Syracuse, Oregon State, Florida, Monmouth
9-seeds: Indiana, Texas Tech, Alabama, Wisconsin
10-seeds: UConn, Michigan, Pittsburgh, St. Joe’s
11-seeds: Wichita State, St. Bonaventure, Tulsa, Seton Hall, Temple, Florida State
12-seeds: Gonzaga, Chattanooga, San Diego State, Valpo
13-seeds: Arkansas-Little Rock, Akron, South Dakota State, Stony Brook
14-seeds: Yale, UNC-Wilmington, UC-Irvine, Middle Tennessee
15-seeds: Belmont, New Mexico State, Stephen F. Austin, Montana
16-seeds: UNC-Asheville, North Florida, Hampton, Bucknell, Texas Southern, Fairleigh Dickinson
NIT Tourney Field:
1-seeds: VCU, George Washington, Washington, Cincinnati
2-seeds: Vanderbilt, Gonzaga, LSU, Butler
3-seeds: Chattanooga, Kansas State, San Diego State, UCLA
4-seeds: Valpo, Clemson, Georgia, Arkansas-Little Rock
5-seeds: Akron, South Dakota State, Stony Brook, Stanford
6-seeds: Davidson, Georgetown, Yale, Princeton
7-seeds: Arizona State, St. Mary’s, UNC-Wilmington, Brigham Young
8-seeds: Creighton, Ohio State, UC-Irvine, William & Mary
Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Georgia Tech, Boise State, Hawaii, Middle Tennessee, Ole Miss, Houston