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 18th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Kansas, Villanova, Virginia, Oklahoma

2-seeds:  Xavier, Oregon, Miami-FL, Iowa

3-seeds: Michigan State, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland

4-seeds: Utah, Kentucky, Duke, Purdue

5-seeds: Iowa State, Dayton, Texas, Notre Dame

6-seeds: Texas A & M, Baylor, Texas Tech, Southern California

7-seeds: California, Arizona, Oregon State, Colorado

8-seeds: South Carolina, Indiana, Alabama, Syracuse

9-seeds: Florida, UConn, Monmouth, Providence

10-seeds: St. Joe’s, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Tulsa

11-seeds: Seton Hall, Michigan, Wichita State, George Washington, Florida State, VCU

12-seeds: Gonzaga, Chattanooga, San Diego State, Valpo

13-seeds: Arkansas-Little Rock, Akron, Yale, Stony Brook

14-seeds: South Dakota State, UNC-Wilmington, UC-Irvine, Middle Tennessee

15-seeds: Belmont, Stephen F. Austin, New Mexico State, Montana

16-seeds: UNC-Asheville, North Florida, Hampton, Bucknell, Wagner, Texas Southern

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: St. Bonaventure, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Temple

2-seeds: Butler, Cincinnati, Chattanooga, Washington

3-seeds: LSU, Kansas State, San Diego State, Valpo

4-seeds: Arkansas-Little Rock, Akron, Stanford, UCLA

5-seeds: Yale, Stony Brook, Princeton, Georgetown

6-seeds: Georgetown, South Dakota State, St. Mary’s, Davidson

7-seeds: Clemson, Ohio State, Arizona State, Georgia Tech

8-seeds: Brigham Young, Creighton, UNC-Wilmington, Ole Miss

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: UC-Irvine, William & Mary, IPFW, Hofstra, Hawaii, Middle Tennessee, Houston, Evansville, Boise State, Long Beach State