March Madness Bracketology Update for 3/17: The Final Bracket

We sit just under an hour away from Selection Sunday in college basketball, and we’ve got you geared up with our final update of bracket projections!

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	EAST	SOUTH	MIDWEST	WEST
1	UConn	Houston	Purdue	Iowa State
2	North Carolina	Tennessee	Marquette	Arizona
3	Illinois	Duke	Baylor	Creighton
4	Auburn	Kansas	Kentucky	Alabama
5	Texas Tech	San Diego State	BYU	Wisconsin
6	Clemson	Gonzaga	South Carolina	Florida
7	Saint Mary’s	Washington State	Nevada	Utah State
8	Dayton	Boise State	Texas	Nebraska
9	TCU	Northwestern	New Mexico	Mississippi State
10	Oklahoma	Michigan State	FAU/COLO	TEX A&M/ST. JOHN’S
11	Drake	Oregon	North Carolina State	James Madison
12	Duquesne	Samford	McNeese	Grand Canyon
13	Yale	Charleston	Vermont	UAB
14	Oakland	Colgate	Morehead State	Akron
15	Western Kentucky	South Dakota State	Longwood	Long Beach State
16	GRAM/WAG	STET/HOW	Montana State	Saint Peter’s

College Basketball Links: Bubble Watch Daily

LAST FOUR BYES: TCU, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Michigan State

LAST FOUR IN: Florida Atlantic, Texas A&M, Colorado, St. John’s

FIRST FOUR OUT: Virginia, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, Providence

NEXT FOUR OUT: Indiana State, Wake Forest, Utah, Ohio State

Bold = automatic qualifier through conference title

Odds = National Championship odds for the top 16 teams (1-4 seeds) 

UConn Finishes Atop the Dance for the #1 Overall Seed

The combination of losses for both Houston and Purdue with UConn’s triumph in Madison Square Garden for the Big East title has put the Huskies into the number one overall spot in our rankings. Houston will remain second with the most Quad 1 wins in the country despite their blowout loss to Iowa State, while Purdue will fall to third after their defeat to Wisconsin. It’s an intriguing talking point, but it ultimately doesn’t change much since each team will still get its desired region.

Bid Stealers Shrink the Bubble Immensely

For the first time in the First Four’s history, we are going to see TEN seeds battling it out in Dayton. Stolen automatic bids by Oregon, North Carolina State, and UAB shrunk the bubble so far that it’s lost an entire seed line, pushing the play-ins up the ten-seed line. It cost Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Seton Hall invitations to the tournament via our projections, leaving one of the most cutthroat bubbles we have ever seen.

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Iowa State Swoops in for Final #1 Seed

After their demolition of Houston in the Big 12 Championship, it gave Iowa State their tenth Quad 1 win and did just enough to push them past North Carolina for the final #1 seed. The Cyclones now rank ahead of the Tar Heels in both predictive metrics and match their 16-7 record in the top two quadrants. Their non-conference strength of schedule is poor, but two wins over Houston and a conference tournament title are undeniable.

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