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/College Basketball Crown (CBC) fields. These are teams predicted to be automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament that would also earn at-large bids to the NIT or CBC tournaments if they were to lose in their respective conference tournaments. There are a couple of reasons why 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 a bit to the NIT or College Basketball Crown.

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 Sunday February 9th. Brad-ketology columns will typically be published twice a week (typically on Mondays and Fridays) and likely more often than that when it gets closer to tourney time.  

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Auburn, Alabama, Duke, Tennessee

2-seeds: Florida, Houston, Purdue, Iowa State

3-seeds: Texas A & M, Kansas, Wisconsin, Arizona

4-seeds: Michigan State, Texas Tech, Marquette, Ole Miss

5-seeds: Michigan, St. John’s, Kentucky, Illinois

6-seeds: Mississippi State, Maryland, Memphis, Missouri

7-seeds: Creighton, UCLA, Louisville, Oregon

8-seeds: Clemson, Utah State, Saint Mary’s, UConn

9-seeds: Baylor, Gonzaga, Ohio State, West Virginia

10-seeds: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas

11-seeds: BYU, Vanderbilt, VCU, Georgia, San Diego State, Cincinnati

12-seeds: Drake, UC Irvine, McNeese State, Yale

13-seeds: Liberty, Arkansas State, Samford, Akron

14-seeds: Grand Canyon, High Point, Lipscomb, South Dakota State

15-seeds: Northern Colorado, Cleveland State, Towson, Norfolk State

16-seeds: Central Connecticut, Merricmack, Bryant, Southern SIU-Edwardsville, American

NIT/College Basketball Crown Teams (in order of proximity to NCAA tourney at-large field):

1	Arkansas (14-9)
2	SMU (18-5)
3	Wake Forest (18-6)
4	Pittsburgh (14-9)
5	North Carolina (14-10)
6	Xavier (14-10)
7	Drake (20-2)
8	UC Irvine (19-4)
9	Santa Clara (17-9)
10	UCF (13-10)
11	San Francisco (19-6)
12	Arizona State (12-11)
13	Southern Cal (13-10)
14	Boise State (16-7)
15	Indiana (14-10)
16	Dayton (15-8)
17	Northwestern (13-11)
18	UC San Diego (18-4)
19	Iowa (13-10)
20	Stanford (16-8)
21	Villanova (14-10)
22	Colorado State (15-8)
23	George Mason (18-5)
24	Penn State (13-11)
25	Kansas State (12-11)
26	Oregon State (16-8)
27	Rutgers (12-12)
28	North Texas (15-6)
29	TCU (12-11)
30	Utah (13-10)
31	Georgetown (15-9)
32	Nevada (13-10)
33	Bradley (18-6)
34	LSU (12-11)
35	Saint Joseph’s (14-9)
36	Minnesota (12-12)
37	McNeese State (16-6)
38	Yale (13-6)
39	Liberty (16-5)
40	Arkansas State (17-7)
41	Florida State (14-9)
42	St. Bonaventure (16-8)
43	Washington (11-11)
44	Washington State (16-10)
45	Samford (17-6)
46	Akron (15-6)
47	Grand Canyon (16-6)
48	Oklahoma State (12-11)