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 25th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Kansas, Oklahoma, Villanova, Xavier

2-seeds:   Oregon, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan State

3-seeds: Miami-FL, Maryland, Utah, West Virginia

4-seeds: Kentucky, Duke, Iowa, Texas A & M

5-seeds: Dayton, California, Purdue, Iowa State

6-seeds: Texas Tech, Texas, Baylor, Notre Dame

7-seeds: Indiana, South Carolina, Colorado, St. Joe’s

8-seeds: Arizona, Oregon State, Wisconsin, Southern California

9-seeds: UConn, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, Florida

10-seeds: Seton Hall, Providence, Monmouth, Wichita State

11-seeds: Alabama, Syracuse, George Washington, St. Bonaventure, Michigan, Vanderbilt

12-seeds: San Diego State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Gonzaga, Valpo

13-seeds: Princeton, Akron, Chattanooga, South Dakota State

14-seeds: Stony Brook, Hofstra, Hawaii, Belmont

15-seeds: UAB, Stephen F. Austin, New Mexico State, Winthrop

16-seeds: Weber State, North Florida, Hampton, Bucknell, Wagner, Texas Southern

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Cincinnati, Butler, VCU, San Diego State

2-seeds: Temple, Arkansas-Little Rock, Florida State, Gonzaga

3-seeds: UCLA, Valpo, St. Mary’s, Princeton

4-seeds: Washington, Akron, Stanford, Chattanooga

5-seeds: South Dakota State, Stony Brook, Kansas State, Davidson

6-seeds: LSU, Georgia Tech, Yale, Ohio State

7-seeds: Brigham Young, Creighton, Georgia, Georgetown

8-seeds: Arizona State, Hofstra, Ole Miss, UNC-Wilmington

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: IPFW, William & Mary, Hawaii, UC-Irvine, Clemson, Houston, Evansville, Boise State, Belmont, NC State