Over the weekend, men’s college basketball teams from the sport’s major conferences will wrap up their 2024-25 regular seasons and, with that, March’s beloved and trademark madness will be upon us.
As mid- and low-major leagues from across the country tipped off their conference tournaments this week, the reminders of the men’s NCAA Tournament’s impending arrival have been everywhere.
Teams competing in conference tournaments are looking to secure their league’s automatic berth to the Big Dance. Bubble teams are working feverishly to polish their NCAA Tournament resumes. Even those squads that are safely in the 68-team field have bracket positioning to worry about, with a huge win or a deflating loss potentially elevating or knocking them down a seed line.
There’s a heated battle to secure the tournament’s coveted No. 1 seeds, with Auburn, Duke and Houston leading the way. A couple of the nation’s most historically decorated programs, Indiana and North Carolina, are squarely on the bubble. The team led by one of the sport’s most recognizable faces, Arkansas’ John Calipari, is in that same precarious position. In what’s likely the best season ever for the conference, how many teams will the SEC land in the tournament? And will it be enough to eclipse the Big East’s record 11 inclusions from 14 years ago?
Here’s a look at the latest NCAA tournament bracket predictions, which take into account games played through Thursday, March 6:
** Participating in a play-in game
All the players and the plays: Sign up for USA TODAY’s Sports newsletter.
