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 Friday February 10th.  Interested to see how I do in comparison to the first-ever early reveal of the top 4 seeds of the NCAA Tournament later today.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Villanova, Gonzaga, Kansas, Baylor

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

3-seeds: Duke, Virginia, UCLA, Kentucky

4-seeds: Butler, Florida, Oregon, Creighton

5-seeds: West Virginia, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Purdue

6-seeds: Xavier, St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, SMU

7-seeds: Maryland, Southern California, South Carolina, Minnesota

8-seeds: VCU, Dayton, TCU, Northwestern

9-seeds: Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech

10-seeds: Marquette, Tennessee, Clemson, Seton Hall

11-seeds: Miami-FL, Middle Tennessee, Michigan State, Syracuse, Indiana, California

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

13-seeds: Monmouth, Akron, New Mexico State, Vermont

14-seeds: Belmont, Arkansas State, Princeton, Bucknell

15-seeds: UNC-Asheville, Florida Gulf Coast, North Dakota State, Texas Southern

16-seeds: Furman, Sam Houston, Weber State, UC Davis, Mount St. Mary’s, North Carolina Central

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Arkansas, Michigan, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech

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

3-seeds: Texas Tech, Georgetown, Auburn, Georgia

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

5-seeds: Providence, UNC Wilmington, Ole Miss, Valpo

6-seeds: Monmouth, NC State, Ohio State, Boise State

7-seeds: Memphis, Penn State, Texas A & M, Utah

8-seeds: Akron, Stanford, New Mexico State, Vermont

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: La Salle, Temple, Charleston, Iowa, UCF