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 NCAA Tournament.   The bold teams are ones who have already clinched an automatic bid to the respective postseason tournament (NCAA or NIT).  You will notice that some teams are listed both the NCAA and NIT brackets.  These are teams predicted to be automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament that would also earn at-large bids to the NIT tournament but not the NCAA tourney.  The reason these teams are displayed like this is to show how close those teams are to getting at-large bids in the NCAA tournament field. 

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 March 12th.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Gonzaga, Michigan, Baylor, Illinois

2-seeds: Iowa,  Alabama, Ohio State, Kansas

3-seeds: Arkansas, Houston, Oklahoma State, Virginia

4-seeds: Purdue, West Virginia, Texas, Tennessee

5-seeds: Florida State, Villanova, Colorado, Creighton

6-seeds: Southern California, Texas Tech, Wisconsin, Oklahoma

7-seeds: LSU, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida

8-seeds: Brigham Young, Oregon, Clemson, UConn

9-seeds: San Diego State, Loyola-IL, St. Bonaventure, Rutgers

10-seeds: Maryland, Georgia Tech, VCU, UCLA

11-seeds: UCLA, Syracuse, Ole Miss, Louisville

12-seeds:  Michigan State, Drake, Wichita State, Utah State, Winthrop, Western Kentucky

13-seeds: Colgate, UC Santa Barbara, Buffalo, UNC Greensboro

14-seeds: Liberty, Abilene Christian, Eastern Washington, Morehead State

15-seeds: Grand Canyon, Drexel, Iona, Cleveland State

16-seeds: Oral Roberts, Hartford, Mount Saint Mary’s, Prairie View, Norfolk State, Appalachian State

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Saint Louis, Boise State, Colorado State, Memphis

2-seeds: Seton Hall, Xavier, St. John’s, Richmond

3-seeds: Western Kentucky, Indiana, Penn State, SMU

4-seeds: Davidson, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford, NC State

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Saint Mary’s, Toledo, Mississippi State, Minnesota, Colgate, North Texas, Kentucky, Dayton, Louisiana Tech, Wright State, UAB