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 12th

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Villanova, Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga

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

3-seeds: Florida State, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia

4-seeds: West Virginia, UCLA, Duke, Creighton

5-seeds: Butler, Purdue, Notre Dame, Wisconsin

6-seeds: Xavier, Cincinnati, SMU, South Carolina

7-seeds: Maryland, St. Mary’s, Minnesota, Northwestern

8-seeds: VCU, Dayton, Southern California, Virginia Tech

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

10-seeds: Middle Tennessee, Michigan State, Tennessee, Miami-FL

11-seeds: Seton Hall, Clemson, Syracuse, California, Marquette, Arkansas

12-seeds: Illinois State,  Monmouth, UNC Wilmington, Boise State

13-seeds: Valpo, Akron, UT-Arlington, Vermont

14-seeds: Belmont, Princeton, Bucknell, UNC-Asheville

15-seeds: Florida Gulf Coast, Cal State Bakersfield, North Dakota State, Furman

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

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Pittsburgh, Michigan, Wake Forest, Indiana

2-seeds: Georgia Tech, Georgetown, Georgia, Houston

3-seeds: Providence, Rhode Island, Illinois State, Illinois

4-seeds: Wichita State, Ole Miss, Auburn, Alabama

5-seeds: Monmouth, Ohio State, Penn State, UNC Wilmington

6-seeds: Boise State, Nevada, Valpo, Utah

7-seeds: Akron, Texas Tech, UT-Arlington, Vermont

8-seeds: Texas A & M, Temple, Richmond, La Salle

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Charleston, New Mexico, Brigham Young, San Diego State