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 January 25th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Villanova, Virginia, Purdue, Duke

2-seeds: Xavier, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina

3-seeds: Auburn, Clemson, West Virginia, Tennessee

4-seeds: Arizona, Texas Tech, Michigan State, Rhode Island

5-seeds: Seton Hall, Kentucky, Butler, Arkansas

6-seeds: Ohio State, Creighton, TCU, Miami-FL

7-seeds: Florida, Arizona State, Michigan, Louisville

8-seeds: Wichita State, Cincinnati, Florida State, Texas

9-seeds: Nevada, Syracuse, Providence, Alabama

10-seeds: Texas A & M, Missouri, Marquette, St. Mary’s

11-seeds: Gonzaga, Washington, Houston, South Carolina, Kansas State, SMU

12-seeds: New Mexico State, Middle Tennessee, Buffalo, Loyola-IL

13-seeds: South Dakota State, Vermont, East Tennessee State, Wright State

14-seeds: Northeastern, UL-Lafayette, Belmont, UC Davis

15-seeds: Bucknell, Montana, Radford, Canisius

16-seeds: Robert Morris, Penn, Florida Gulf Coast, Nicholls State, Bethune Cookman, Arkansas Pine Bluff

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Georgia, Utah, St. Bonaventure, New Mexico State

2-seeds: UCLA, Maryland, Notre Dame, Southern California

3-seeds: Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Buffalo, Boise State

4-seeds: NC State, UCF, Nebraska, Loyola-IL

5-seeds: Colorado, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Boston College

6-seeds: Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Minnesota, Baylor

7-seeds: South Dakota State, LSU, Vermont, Ole Miss

8-seeds: East Tennessee State, UConn, Stanford, Wright State

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Iowa State, Missouri State, Northeastern, UL-Lafayette, Belmont, Memphis, UC Davis, Northwestern, Wyoming, Brigham Young