SEC, Kansas lead NCAA Tournament seeds release winners and losers

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The Division I men’s basketball committee’s in-season top 16 seeds is a NCAA men’s tournament roadmap directly from the source. A year ago, the committee’s in-season list nailed all but two of the eventual top 16 tournament seeds, missing on only Creighton and Kentucky.

While there’s enough time left in the regular season for this early bracket projection to fall apart before Selection Sunday, this year’s top 16 seeds released Saturday indicates a few subtle and not-so-subtle ways the committee will approach the selection process.

One obvious takeaway from the top 16 is the committee’s affinity for several major conferences and lack of affection for one purported basketball conference in particular — the ACC, as we’ll touch on below.

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Here are the biggest winners and losers from the in-season rankings:

Winners

The SEC

As expected, the conference dominated the top 16 with six teams, including five of the top six. The list is topped by Auburn, the top overall seed thanks to a Division I-best 13 wins against Quad 1 teams. The SEC has two more projected No. 1 seeds in Alabama and Florida. With this many teams scheduled to land on the top four lines, you can see why this year’s SEC is on track to dominate March Madness and potentially have multiple teams deep in contention for the Final Four. And the committee’s rankings don’t include another seven teams projected to reach the tournament in our latest bracketology. You’re beginning to see why this year’s SEC is already being talked about in a historic context.

Alabama guard Labaron Philon (0) drives the ball against LSU during the second half at Coleman Coliseum.

Kansas

Ranked No. 15 overall by the committee, Kansas is set to receive the committee’s benefit of the doubt despite ranking fifth in the Big 12 standings, four games behind Houston, and owning a losing record in games against fellow…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sec-kansas-lead-ncaa-tournament-182052006.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-15 18:20:00

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