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, and the bolded teams are squads who have already clinched automatic bids to either the NCAA or NIT.  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).  This bracket projection has been updated through all games played on Thursday March 11th.  This will be my last update before the final bracket projections are posted on Selection Sunday.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Kansas, Villanova, Virginia, Oklahoma

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

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

4-seeds: Texas A & M, Kentucky, Indiana, Purdue

5-seeds: Duke, California, Arizona, Iowa State

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

7-seeds: Iowa, Colorado, Seton Hall, Wisconsin

8-seeds: Texas Tech, Oregon State, Providence, St. Bonaventure

9-seeds: Butler,  St. Joe’s, Southern California, South Carolina

10-seeds: Cincinnati, VCU, Pittsburgh, Tulsa

11-seeds: Wichita State, St. Mary’s, Vanderbilt, Monmouth, Gonzaga, Arkansas-Little Rock, 

12-seeds: San Diego State, Akron, Chattanooga, Yale

13-seeds: South Dakota State, Northern Iowa, UNC-Wilmington, Iona

14-seeds: Stony Brook, Middle Tennessee, Stephen F. Austin, Hawaii

15-seeds: New Mexico State, Green Bay, Weber State, UNC-Asheville

16-seeds: Hampton, Austin Peay, Texas Southern, Florida Gulf Coast, Fairleigh Dickinson, Holy Cross

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Temple, UConn,  Florida, Michigan

2-seeds: Syracuse, Valpo, George Washington, Arkansas-Little Rock

3-seeds: Alabama, San Diego State, Georgia, Florida State

4-seeds: Houston, Akron, Georgia Tech, LSU

5-seeds: Ohio State, Princeton, Davidson, Washington

6-seeds: Kansas State, Virginia Tech, Brigham Young, Stanford

7-seeds: Hofstra, UAB, IPFW, Belmont

8-seeds: North Florida, High Point, Wagner, Bucknell

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Stony Brook, Stephen F. Austin, UC-Irvine, Fresno State, Ole Miss, Creighton, William & Mary, Evansville, Boise State, Hawaii, Marquette, Northwestern