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.  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. You may also notice that some teams are listed in both the NCAA and NIT fields. 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. There are several reasons reason these teams are displayed like this.. First and foremost, it shows how close those teams are to getting at-large bids in the NCAA tournament field. Secondly, it shows where those squads would be seeded if in fact they lost in their conference tournament and garnered an automatic bid to the NIT. Finally, there will inevitably be 6-8 regular season mid-major conference champions that lose their conference tourney and earn an NIT automatic bid, so by going ahead and adding 6-8 teams that may later get removed, we end up with an NIT cut line that is more representative of what it will actually look like on Selection Sunday.

Moreover, 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 the 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. 

This bracket projection has been updated through all games played on Thursday February 16th. Brad-ketology columns will typically be published twice a week (usually on Mondays and Fridays) and likely more often than that when it gets closer to tourney time. Please feel free to comment or debate.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Alabama, Houston, Purdue, Kansas

2-seeds: UCLA, Arizona, Tennessee, Texas

3-seeds: Virginia, Marquette, Baylor, Gonzaga

4-seeds: Xavier, UConn, Iowa State, Saint Mary’s

5-seeds: Miami-FL, Kansas State, Indiana, Creighton

6-seeds: TCU, Duke, San Diego State, Maryland

7-seeds: Illinois, Michigan State, Iowa, Rutgers

8-seeds: Northwestern, Providence, Auburn, Oklahoma State

9-seeds: Arkansas, Nevada, Missouri, Florida Atlantic

10-seeds: Boise State, West Virginia, NC State, Texas A & M

11-seeds: Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Memphis, North Carolina, Southern California, Wisconsin

12-seeds: Sam Houston State, College of Charleston, Oral Roberts, Southern Miss

13-seeds: Liberty, VCU, Kent State, Drake

14-seeds: Yale, Iona, UC Santa Barbara, Colgate

15-seeds: Eastern Washington, Vermont, Youngstown State, Samford

16-seeds: Northwestern State, UNC Asheville, Alcorn State, Howard, Morehead State, Fairleigh Dickinson

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Mississippi State, Oregon, Seton Hall, Clemson

2-seeds: Arizona State, Utah State, New Mexico, Florida

3-seeds: Penn State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Sam Houston State

4-seeds: College of Charleston, Oklahoma, Michigan, Oral Roberts

5-seeds: Texas Tech, Utah, Colorado, North Texas

6-seeds: Southern Miss, Ohio State, Liberty, Tulane

7-seeds:  VCU,UCF, Kent State, Utah Valley

8-seeds: Drake, Cincinnati, Marshall, Dayton

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Vanderbilt, Syracuse, St. John’s, UNLV, Santa Clara