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Bracketology 2023: It’s Time to Turn This Effort into a Daily Show

Business time has arrived, so let’s jump right into the bracket before looking at what’s to come on the final Saturday of the regular season.

The top four seeds in each of the four regions in the bracket projection for Saturday, March 4, 2023.
Graphic by Chris Dobbertean using logos from SportsLogos.net.

Text-Only Bracket for Screen Readers and Seed List

Key:

  • Conference logos indicate auto bid holders.
  • 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 Tuesday’s bracket.

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

Lowest-ranked NET at-large: Arizona State (63)
Lowest-ranked KenPom at-large: Arizona State (63)

Highest-ranked NET exclusion: North Carolina (44)
Highest-ranked KenPom exclusion: Oregon (41)

Bids By Conference

23 single-bid conferences

Ins and Outs (2, 1 at-large)

New Entrants: Utah State, Tennessee Tech (OVC)

Out For Now: Wisconsin, Morehead State (OVC)

The Games Ahead

Let me put it this way, the only teams on the “under consideration” board who won’t be in action today are:

  • New Mexico (which has really fallen down the pecking order, their loss at Colorado State on Friday night moved their mark to 3-8 since knocking off Boise State in overtime on January 20th)
  • NC State (who is the ACC team on a bye today)
  • Charleston, Gonzaga, and Saint Mary’s (who have yet to play their first conference tournament games)
  • All of Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Memphis, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin, who complete their regular seasons tomorrow.
  • The Badgers are out of the field for the moment with Utah State replacing them. The Aggies’ NET now stands at 21. If that statistic isn’t completely meaningless, they won’t be left out with that high of a ranking.

There is also at least one automatic bid up for grabs tonight when Tennessee Tech (last NCAA appearance: 1963) meets Southeast Missouri State (last bid: 2000) in the OVC final in Evansville (8 p.m., ESPN2). However, two may end up being awarded tonight, as the first NEC semifinal sees top-seeded Merrimack, ineligible for both the NCAA and NIT in its final reclassification year hosts Sacred Heart (6 p.m., SNY/ESPN3/NEC Front Row). If the Warriors defeat the Pioneers, the winner of the second semifinal—St. Francis (Pa.) at Fairleigh Dickinson (8 p.m., SNY/ESPN3/NEC Front Row)—earns the bid regardless of the result of Tuesday night’s title game. The Red Flash last qualified in 1991, while the Knights represented the NEC in 2019. Sacred Heart, meanwhile, has never qualified for the Division I tournament.

Note that both the NEC and OVC champs are extremely likely to end up in the First Four in Dayton.

Today’s slate also features plenty of conference tournament seeding intrigue, particularly in the Big West, Conference USA, Ivy League, and SWAC.

All times are p.m. Eastern unless noted.

Teams in the projected field are bolded. Teams still in contention are italicized. The order of importance within each window is my editorial decision.

For conference tournament schedules, please visit Conference Tournament Central, featuring daily schedule at the top of the page.

Alabama at Texas A&M, 12 (CBS)
Iowa State at Baylor, 12 (ESPN2)
Penn at Princeton, 12 (ESPN News/ESPN+ ($))
Seton Hall at Providence, 12 (Fox)
Ohio State at Michigan State, 12 (ESPN)
UAB at Charlotte, 1 (Stadium)

Tennessee at Auburn, 2 (ESPN)
Kentucky at Arkansas, 2 (CBS)
Kansas State at West Virginia, 2 (ESPN+ ($))
TCU at Oklahoma, 3 (ESPN+ ($))
St. John’s at Marquette, 2 (Fox)
Florida Atlantic at Louisiana Tech, 3 (ESPN+ ($))
Columbia at Cornell, 2 (ESPN+ ($))
Yale at Brown, 2 (ESPN+ ($))
Western Kentucky at North Texas, 3 (Stadium)
Louisville at Virginia, 2 (ESPN2)

Kansas at Texas, 4 (ESPN)
Ole Miss at Missouri, 3:30 (SECN)
UNLV at Nevada, 5 (NSN, Bally SoCal/San Diego, Stadium College Sports Central, MWN)
Stanford at Oregon, 4 (CBS)
Florida State at Virginia Tech, 4 (ESPN2)
VCU at George Washington, 4:30 (USA)
Wake Forest at Syracuse, 5 (ACC RSNs/ACCNX)

Pittsburgh at Miami, 6 (ACCN)
Duke at North Carolina, 6:30 (ESPN)
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, 6 (ESPN2)
Butler at Xavier, 7 (FS1)
Alcorn State at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 6:30 (UAPB stream)
Alabama State at Grambling State, 6:30 (GSU stream)
Iona at Rider, 7 (ESPN+ ($))
Utah at Colorado, 5:30 (Pac-12 Networks)

UConn at Villanova, 7:30 (Fox)
Notre Dame at Clemson, 8 (ACCN)

Boise State at Utah State, 9 (Stadium College Sports Central, MWN)
Mississippi State at Vanderbilt, 8:30 (SECN)
Hawai’i at UC Santa Barbara, 9 (ESPNU/ESPN+ ($))
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Irvine, 9 (ESPN+ ($))
Creighton at DePaul, 9 (FS1)

Arizona at UCLA, 10 (ESPN)
Arizona State at USC, 11 (FS1)
Wyoming at San Diego State, 10 (CBSSN)
UC Riverside at Cal Poly, 10 (ESPN+ ($))