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 a couple of reasons 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 at-large bid to the NIT.

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 March 7th. Brad-ketology columns will typically be published twice a week (usually on Mondays and Fridays) up until I reveal my full NCAA and NIT bracket projections on Selection Sunday.  Please feel free to comment or debate.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Purdue, UConn, Houston, Arizona

2-seeds: Tennessee, North Carolina, Iowa State, Duke

3-seeds: Baylor, Creighton, Marquette, Kansas

4-seeds:  Auburn, Illinois, Alabama, Brigham Young

5-seeds: Wisconsin, Kentucky, Clemson, San Diego State

6-seeds: Dayton, Florida, Saint Mary’s, South Carolina

7-seeds: Utah State, Texas, Boise State, Washington State

8-seeds: Nevada, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Texas Tech

9-seeds: Nebraska, Mississippi State, TCU, Northwestern

10-seeds: Colorado State, Oklahoma, Florida Atlantic, Virginia

11-seeds: Colorado, New Mexico, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova, Providence

12-seeds: Indiana State, Princeton, James Madison, Grand Canyon

13-seeds: McNeese State, Samford, UC Irvine, Louisiana Tech

14-seeds: Vermont, Charleston, Akron, High Point

15-seeds: High Point, Oakland, Morehead State, Colgate

16-seeds: Quinnipiac, South Dakota State, Norfolk State, Central Connecticut, Stetson, Grambling

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Utah, Texas, A & M, Indiana State, Iowa

2-seeds: Drake, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Wake Forest

3-seeds: James Madison, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Ohio State

4-seeds: Butler, Grand Canyon, South Florida, McNeese State

5-8 seeds: Ole Miss, Kansas State, Memphis, Oregon, Richmond, Syracuse, Appalachian State, UNLV, Washington, SMU, Xavier, Bradley, Minnesota, UCF, Maryland, VCU

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: LSU, NC State, San Francisco, Samford, Indiana, St. Bonaventure, UC Irvine, Florida State, Rutgers, Miami-FL, Loyola-Chicago, Boston College, Louisiana Tech