We have a bracket, and now we have three days to talk about it. Let’s start immediately.
Here are 10 immediate thoughts on this year’s field of 68:
1. It … kind of seems like no one is overly upset about anything?
Fans of the last few teams left out of the field are always going to keep pleading their case for at least a couple of days after the bracket it out, but besides that, it doesn’t seem like there was anything the Committee did that had the college basketball world especially up in arms.
Helping the Committee out this year was the fact that pretty much every bubble team (on a historically weak bubble) that was considered to be “on the outside looking in” at the beginning of conference tournament week did little to nothing to aid their case for inclusion. If Oklahoma or Auburn or Indiana had won another game or two this week, the conversations surrounding their exclusions would have a lot more pop right now.
There also weren’t any teams that were seeded two or three lines higher or lower than where all the internet Bracketologists had them slotted heading into the bracket reveal.
Dare I say, we should all tip our collective caps in the direction of the Committee for a job well done?
2. The East Region is the Glamour Region
There’s been a strange trend in recent years where it feels like the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed somehow winds up with the tournament’s toughest region. Maybe this is part of the reason why just one No. 1 overall seed since 2013 has gone on to cut down the nets.
We can debate whether or not Duke’s East Region is the “toughest” of the four regions, but there’s no question it’s the most glamorous.
In addition to the Blue Devils, who represent the biggest brand in the sport, you’ve got traditional powerhouses UConn, Michigan State, Kansas, St. John’s, Louisville, UCLA and Ohio State all packed into the same region. That’s outrageous.
The second round in the region could give us Rick Pitino vs. Bill Self for the right to face Jon Scheyer, and Mick Cronin vs. Danny Hurley for the right to face Tom Izzo. Madness.
3. The Committee did the right thing with Miami University
There hasn’t been a potential at-large team more debated than 31-1 Miami University since … well, maybe ever.
The reason is pretty straightforward: There had never been a team with an NCAA Tournament resume quite like Miami’s.
The 31-1 record is as gaudy as a blemished mark can be, but there were big problems below the surface. For starters, Miami played just the 269th-toughest schedule in a sport that features 365 teams. The lack of schedule pop wasn’t entirely Miami’s fault — as showcased by Matt Brown of Extra Points — but the fact that this team played 32 games and not one of them presented a Quad-I opportunity is something the Committee still had to take into consideration.
Predictive metrics, which seem to increase in importance every year, all believed that Miami wouldn’t even be flirting with an NCAA Tournament bid if it played in a better conference or had been able to piece together a more challenging non-conference schedule. The three predictives that the Committee looked at — Ken Pom, T-Rank and BPI — have the Redhawks ranked 93rd, 86th and 93rd, respectively. That’s not exactly at-large bid worthy.
On the flip side, the resume rankings averaged out to have Miami as the 38th-best team in the sport, and their ranking of 37 in Wins Above Bubble — the metric the Committee leans on the most heavily when it comes to the selection of the final teams in the field — is likely what ultimately got the Redhawks into the tournament.
The predictive metrics say Miami has no business even sniffing the tournament. The resume rankings say they should be in. We’ve never had a team with a higher variance in these two fields.
The simple solution? Do exactly what the Committee did and send Miami to Dayton for a First Four game against a power conference opponent. It was a bit surprising to see the Redhawks as the very last team in the field, but the end result still feels like the correct one.
Leaving a 31-1 team out of the tournament would have felt absurd, but rewarding a team without a Quad-I victory with a single-digit seed would have felt equally unfair. This is the best of both worlds.
Having an added national interest in the First Four and the team sparking that interest getting to play in its home state is a nice little bonus as well.
4. The SEC came very close to sending 12 teams
A year after sending a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament, the SEC once again led all conferences with 10 teams getting bids in 2026. They came very close to getting even more.
Oklahoma and Auburn were the first two teams left out of the field, and it feels like both would have had a strong shot at getting in had they won just one more game in Nashville this week.
While the SEC didn’t have the same strength at the top that it had a year ago, and also didn’t seem to have the same strength at the top that the Big 12 did, Sunday proved that it was once again the deepest league in the sport.
5. Vanderbilt feels like the most under-seeded team
While the SEC certainly received respect in terms of the number of teams it got into the field, it also produced the team that seems like it might have gotten the most raw deal from the Committee.
Almost all amateur Bracketologists had the Commodores as a 4-seed going into Sunday, with many projecting that they could climb to the 3-line with a win over Arkansas in the SEC championship game. Instead, Vandy finds itself as a 5-seed staring down a dangerous matchup with 12-seed McNeese State in a game that figures to be a trendy upset pick.
NC State slipping to one of the last four at-large teams in and Utah State receiving a 9-seed get honorable mention nods here.
6. We have a strong chance for our first Big 10 or West Coast champion in a long time
A team from the Big Ten hasn’t won the national championship since Michigan State did it in 2000. You have to go back three years before that to find the last time we had a West Coast national champion, Arizona in 1997.
One of those two runs of futility could be coming to an end in a few weeks.
Two West Coast teams — No. 1 seed Arizona and No. 3 seed Gonzaga — are on the top 3 lines. Four teams from the Big Ten — No. 1 seed Michigan, No. 2 seed Purdue and No. 3 seeds Michigan State and Illinois — received the same distinction.
It feels like there’s a decent chance that one of those six teams could make history that has felt like it’s been a long time coming.
7. There are going to be some high scoring first round matchups
This has been the highest-scoring season in the history of college basketball, and the tournament is likely to reflect that.
Alabama-Hofstra, Louisville-South Florida, Georgia-Saint Louis and Miami-SMU are all first round games (or First Four games in the case of Miami-SMU) featuring two teams that love to get up and down and light up the scoreboard.
Expect sparks to fly early and often on Thursday and Friday.
8. Chalk at the top is going to be a trendy play again
A year ago, for just the second-time ever, all four No. 1 seeds won their regions to advance to the Final Four. The only other time that’s happened was back in 2008.
The year after that 2008 season saw all four one seeds advance to the Elite Eight, where they squared off against a pair of 2-seeds and two 3-seeds. If history repeats itself, we could have a second straight extremely chalky tournament.
One note though: We’ve never had back-to-back tournaments where three or more No. 1 seeds have made the Final Four. If you think that trend holds true this month, you’re going to have to decide which non-Florida 1-seed you think is going to fall short of Indianapolis.
9. The Committee wanted everyone to know that conference tournaments matter
There’s been a growing thought in recent years that conference tournaments, particularly the ones with championship games on Sunday, don’t matter as much when it comes to seeding as they used to.
The Committee seemed to be directly refuting that notion by placing Big Ten Tournament winner Purdue on the 2-line and SEC tourney champ Arkansas on the 4-line, both up from where both were projected to be at the beginning of the week.
10. The 12/5 upset trend should continue
In 34 of the last 40 years, at least one 12 seed has advanced out of the first round of the tournament. Over the last 17 years, 12 seeds actually own a highly respectable overall record of 28-40 against five seeds.
With an exciting quartet of Akron, McNeese State, Northern Iowa and High Point gracing this year’s 12-line, it feels like a safe bet that this trend will continue. All four of those teams rank in the top 100 on Ken Pom, with Akron, McNeese and UNI all ranking in the top 72.
At least one of those four teams is advancing to round two.
