Men’s Basketball Committee Previews the Top 16 Seeds for March Madness
Paul Sancya / AP Photo
Indianapolis, Indiana (PSF) - Since 2017, the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee have released their current top 16 teams just a few short weeks ahead of March Madness. Televised on CBS each year around mid-February, this is the only official release of tournament rankings from the committee prior to Selection Sunday.
Since the first preview in 2017, 65 of the 80 top 16 teams unveiled have remained a top 4 seed in the tournament on Selection Sunday. This means that this preview is generally a pretty good indicator of where these teams will ultimately end up for their true tournament seeding on March 12.
Alabama took the number one overall seed, accompanied by Houston, Purdue, and Kansas as the other current one seeds. Alabama has never been a one seed in the history of their program. Three of the four one seeds revealed each year since 2017 have remained a one seed on the true bracket reveal.
The two seeds feature two Big 12 teams in Texas and Baylor and two Pac-12 teams in Arizona and UCLA. Arizona was ranked sixth overall compared to UCLA’s eighth overall ranking, and this was one of the bigger surprises of the reveal. Although Arizona defeated UCLA on their home court back in January, UCLA is leading the Pac-12 standings and have been a bit more consistent over the course of the season. Arizona has worse losses and lower NET ranking, an evaluation tool that the committee uses in considering the seeding of teams.
The current three seeds consist of Tennessee, Virginia, Iowa State, and Kansas State. With two more Big 12 teams in Iowa State and Kansas State, the Big 12 Conference features five teams at a three seed or better. This is very impressive for a single conference to have so many teams at the top.
Indiana, Marquette, Gonzaga, and Xavier round out the top 16 as the four seeds. Miami and Connecticut were two of the bigger surprises to miss the top 16. They were mentioned as teams considered for a four seed along with Creighton and Saint Mary’s, so we can assume that those four would be the current five seeds even though they weren’t officially released.
The current breakdown by region and overall rank is as follows:
SOUTH REGION (LOUISVILLE)
1. Alabama
7. Baylor
10. Virginia
13. Indiana
MIDWEST REGION (KANSAS CITY)
2. Houston
5. Texas
9. Tennessee
16. Xavier
WEST REGION (LAS VEGAS)
4. Kansas
6. Arizona
12. Kansas State
15. Gonzaga
EAST REGION (NEW YORK CITY)
3. Purdue
8. UCLA
11. Iowa State
14. Marquette
With Selection Sunday less than three weeks away, we have made it to some of the most exciting weeks of college basketball. As the regular season winds down, conference tournaments take place, and March Madness begins, only one team will survive and be crowned as National Champions.
