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 February 2nd.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Kansas, Villanova, Baylor, Gonzaga

2-seeds: Louisville, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina

3-seeds: Florida State, Creighton, Virginia, West Virginia

4-seeds: Butler, UCLA, Duke, Florida

5-seeds: Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Oregon, Maryland

6-seeds: Notre Dame, South Carolina, Saint Mary’s, Xavier

7-seeds: Purdue, SMU, Southern California, Minnesota

8-seeds: VCU, Virginia Tech, Dayton, Northwestern

9-seeds: Middle Tennessee, Michigan State, Marquette, Clemson

10-seeds: Tennessee, Indiana, TCU, Oklahoma State

11-seeds: Arkansas,  Seton Hall, Iowa State, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Michigan

12-seeds: Illinois State,  Valpo, Akron, Nevada

13-seeds: UNC-Wilmington, Monmouth, New Mexico State, Vermont

14-seeds: Belmont, Arkansas State, East Tennessee State, Winthrop

15-seeds: Bucknell, Florida Gulf Coast, Princeton, North Dakota State

16-seeds: Texas Southern, Sam Houston, UC Irvine, Weber State Mount St. Mary’s, North Carolina Central

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Pittsburgh, California, Georgetown, Wake Forest

2-seeds: Miami-FL, Rhode Island, Texas Tech, Georgia 

3-seeds: NC State, Houston, Illinois State, Illinois

4-seeds: Providence, Valpo, Akron, Wichita State

5-seeds: Nevada, UNC Wilmington, Monmouth, Memphis

6-seeds: Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Utah

7-seeds: Penn State, Boise State, Ohio State, Stanford

8-seeds: New Mexico State, La Salle, Texas A & M, New Mexico

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Temple, Syracuse, Vermont, Charleston