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 16th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Villanova, Kansas, Gonzaga, North Carolina

2-seeds: Baylor, Louisville, Oregon, Arizona

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

4-seeds: Butler, UCLA, Virginia, West Virginia

5-seeds: Purdue, Creighton, Notre Dame, Cincinnati

6-seeds: SMU, Maryland, Xavier, Wisconsin

7-seeds: St. Mary’s, Minnesota, South Carolina, VCU

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

9-seeds:  Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Seton Hall, Michigan State

10-seeds: Kansas State, Miami-FL, Arkansas, TCU

11-seeds: Clemson, Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, California, Michigan, Syracuse

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

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

14-seeds: Belmont, Princeton, UNC-Asheville, Florida Gulf Coast

15-seeds: Bucknell, Cal State Bakersfield, Furman, North Dakota State

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

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Georgetown, Georgia, Providence, Houston

2-seeds: Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Illinois State

3-seeds: Wichita State, Marquette, Illinois, Indiana

4-seeds: Ohio State, Ole Miss, Rhode Island, Alabama

5-seeds: Monmouth, Auburn, Texas Tech, Nevada

6-seeds: UNC Wilmington, Valpo, Penn State, Akron

7-seeds: Boise State, Utah, UT-Arlington, New Mexico

8-seeds: Vermont, Charleston, Brigham Young, Temple

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Richmond, San Diego State, St. Bonaventure