Projecting The NCAA Field – FINAL UPDATE

STATE SCHOOLED: San Diego State’s run through the Mountain West Conference Tournament, taking control of their own destiny and securing an automatic berth, is what March Madness is all about. Photo courtesy NY Daily News

Here it is! The Selection Show is just less than an hour away. Here is the final projection as to what the bracket should look like.

Murphy’s Law struck again for bubble teams and Davidson secured an automatic berth to the tournament by winning the A-10 Championship. Rhode Island will still be in, which means someone else is out. And for this projection, that someone else is Alabama. The Crimson Tide had an impressive SEC tournament, and perhaps in a year with fewer seat-stealing teams could’ve been in, but as it is those 15 losses are just too much. They’ll likely play in the NIT.

Also in now is Georgia State who beat UT Arlington.

These two developments caused some seeds to be shuffled and some of you might notice that St. Mary’s leapfrogged Arizona St. into the dreaded First Four round when the Sun Devils should’ve been next on the chopping block. Nothing against the Gaels, but the problem is there are already two Pac 12 teams (UCLA and USC) in the first round, so in order to avoid a bracket conflict, Arizona St. gets a “bye” through the “first round”.

Other than that, though, that’s pretty much it. The full final projection is below!

^ = Projected Conference Champion
# = Automatic Berth Clinched
* = New Team To Bracket Projection
Bold = First Round “First Four” Game

Last Four Byes: St. Bonaventure, Texas, North Carolina St., Arizona St.
Last Four In: St. Mary’s, UCLA, Oklahoma, USC
First Four Out: Alabama, Syracuse, Middle Tennessee St., Marquette
Next Four Out: Louisville, Baylor, Notre Dame, Boise St.