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BRACKET BREAKDOWN: Nov. 14th

This is ONLY November.

Between now and Selection Sunday, each Friday during the regular season I’ll give a “BRACKET BREAKDOWN” with my 68 projected teams for the 2026 NCAA Tournament along with my Top 16 seeds as well as emerging trends.

The team who’s currently in first place or was picked first in their respective conference’s preseason poll if they’re a mid-major will be listed as that league’s “automatic qualifier”.

The Current Field

Atlantic Sun (1)
Lipscomb (AQ)
America East (1)
Vermont (AQ)
American Athletic Conference (1)
Memphis (AQ)
Atlantic 10 (1)
VCU (AQ)
ACC (5)
Duke (AQ), Louisville, North Carolina, NC State, Miami
Big 12 (10)
Houston (AQ), BYU, Texas Tech, Arizona, Iowa State, Kansas, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Baylor, Oklahoma State
Big East (4)
St. John’s (AQ), UConn, Creighton, Georgetown
Big Sky (1)
Portland State (AQ)
Big South (1)
Radford (AQ)
Big Ten (10)
Purdue (AQ), Michigan, UCLA, Oregon, Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana, Washington
Big West (1)
UC Santa Barbara (AQ)
CAA (1)
Towson (AQ)
Conference-USA (1)
Liberty (AQ)
Horizon League (1)
Milwaukee (AQ)
Ivy League (1)
Yale (AQ)
MAAC (1)
Quinnipiac (AQ)
MAC (1)
Kent State (AQ)
MEAC (1)
Norfolk State (AQ)
Missouri Valley (1)
Illinois State (AQ)
Mountain West (1)
San Diego State (AQ)
NEC (1)
LIU (AQ)
OVC (1)
Little Rock (AQ)
Patriot League (1)
Colgate (AQ)
SEC (12)
Florida (AQ), Arkansas, Kentucky, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma
Southern (1)
Chattanooga (AQ)
Southland (1)
Lamar (AQ)
SWAC (1)
Jackson State (AQ)
Summit (1)
St. Thomas (AQ)
Sun Belt (1)
James Madison (AQ)
WCC (2)
Gonzaga (AQ), Saint Mary’s
WAC (1)
Cal Baptist (AQ)

First Four Out

USC, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Virginia

Top 16 Seeds

1: Purdue, Houston, Arizona, Alabama
2: Louisville, Michigan, UConn, Duke
3: BYU, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan State
4: Gonzaga, Florida, Kentucky, Texas Tech

Five Things To Know

  • The Big East needs a big weekend. Other than St. John’s and UConn, there’s still major questions surrounding how many teams this conference will get into the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Two of the Big East’s most consistent programs over the past few seasons — Marquette and Creighton — were blown in the last week against Indiana and Gonzaga respectively.
  • Jon Scheyer is 8-3 in NCAA Tournament games as Duke’s head coach.
  • Louisville hasn’t reached the second weekend of March Madness since 2015 and hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2017. Both of those things could very well change in 2026.
  • One early thought after Gonzaga’s strong start? If the Bulldogs are one of the top seeds in the West Region on Selection Sunday, they could wind up playing first and second round games at the Moda Center in Portland, which is only about five hours from Spokane.
  • UNLV has not played in the NCAA Tournament since 2013 and it looks like that’s not going to change in 2026. The Runnin Rebels have already lost a pair of buy games to UT Martin and Montana. This is ONLY November, but it’s automatic qualifier or bust for UNLV in Year One under Josh Pastner.

Leftovers