Bracketology 2023: Happy Selection Sunday!

Yesterday, Purdue took care of Ohio State in the first Big Ten semifinal, Texas A&M knocked Vanderbilt out of the SEC Tournament, both Houston and Memphis won their American semis, and Florida Atlantic blitzed UAB in the Conference USA title game. With both teams involved in the SEC, American, and Big Ten title games all but assured of a place in the field and the Atlantic 10 and Ivy being single-bid leagues, this bracket is going to be very close to the final offering that will come later this afternoon.

Notable updates from Saturday:

• Kansas remains No. 1 overall despite getting smoked by Texas for the second consecutive Saturday. I’m still figuring that the Selection Committee will weigh quality wins more highly than the metrics, which is where both Alabama (second overall) and Houston (third) have an advantage.
• Purdue remains the fourth No. 1, and that likely is not going to change because of the lateness of the Big Ten championship. Arizona jumped UCLA for the top No. 2 seed and a spot out West, even though the Bruins’ profile still has stronger metrics. The Wildcats have better top-end wins.
• Texas and Marquette solidified their places on the 2 line after grabbing conference tournament titles on Saturday night, while Duke jumped up to take the last 4 seed after winning the ACC crown in Greensboro.
• I did a lot of number crunching and ranking last night—not just for the bubble—but throughout the bracket. With that complete, my cut line picture changed significantly, which you can read more about here.

Here is the penultimate bracket projection of 2023.

Text-Only Bracket for Screen Readers and Seed List

Key:

• Conference logos indicate auto bid holders. If a team has secured its league’s auto bid, the conference logo will appear next to the team logo. If a team is just the regular-season champ/highest seed remaining in the conference tournament, the logo will remain on the right.
• Numbers in red squares indicate team’s position in the bracket’s top 16 (top four seed lines).
• Colors next to seed numbers indicate bracket movement: yellow (new), green (seed up), red (seed down) relative to Saturday’s bracket.

Graphics by Chris Dobbertean using logos from either SportsLogos.net, Wikimedia Commons, or the institutions’ websites.

Graphic by Chris Dobbertean using logos from SportsLogos.net.

Lowest-ranked NET at-large: Arizona State (66)
Lowest-ranked KenPom at-large: Arizona State (68)

Highest-ranked NET exclusion: North Texas (38)
Highest-ranked KenPom exclusion: Oklahoma State (38)

Bids By Conference

23 single-bid conferences

Ins and Outs (5, 2 at-large)

In: Grand Canyon, Kent State (MAC), NC State, Nevada, Texas Southern (SWAC)
Out: Clemson, Grambling State (SWAC), Southern Utah (WAC), Toledo (MAC), Vanderbilt