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 Sunday February 5th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Villanova, Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville

2-seeds: Baylor, North Carolina, Florida State, Arizona

3-seeds: Butler, UCLA, Kentucky, Virginia

4-seeds: Florida, Duke, West Virginia, Oregon

5-seeds: Creighton, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Purdue

6-seeds: South Carolina, Maryland, Xavier, St. Mary’s

7-seeds: Notre Dame, SMU, Southern California, Minnesota

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

9-seeds: Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Kansas State, Iowa State

10-seeds: Marquette, Clemson, TCU, Tennessee

11-seeds: Seton Hall, Indiana, Arkansas, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech

12-seeds: Illinois State,  Nevada, UNC Wilmington, Valpo

13-seeds: Monmouth, New Mexico State, Akron, 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, Weber State, UC Davis, Mount St. Mary’s, North Carolina Central

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: California, Miami-FL, Michigan, Texas Tech

2-seeds: Rhode Island, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Houston

3-seeds: Providence, Georgia, Syracuse, Illinois,

4-seeds: Illinois State, Wichita State, NC State, Nevada

5-seeds: UNC Wilmington, Alabama, Valpo, Auburn

6-seeds: Monmouth, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Boise State

7-seeds: Memphis, Texas A & M, Stanford, Utah

8-seeds: New Mexico State, Penn State, Akron, Temple

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Vermont, Charleston, UCF, New Mexico, La Salle