March Madness bracket predictions 1.0: Projecting the Field of 68 for 2026 NCAA Tournament

March Madness bracket predictions 1.0: Projecting the Field of 68 for 2026 NCAA Tournament originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Florida won the national championship last season with an offense that ranked fifth in the nation at 84.8 points per game.

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Three of the four No. 1 seeds in Sporting News first men’s bracketology for the 2025-26 Men’s Basketball Tournament are above that pace heading into the first week of February.

Arizona averages 89.5 points per game under coach Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats are our top overall seed, followed closely by Michigan, which averages 90.5 points per game under second-year coach Dusty May.

Duke averages 85 points per game under Jon Scheyer. UConn – our last No. 1 seed – averages 79 points per game – but the Huskies have a top-10 scoring defense at 64 points per game.

Those are the four best teams in our rankings, but it’s still a wide-open field. Texas, Ohio State, New Mexico and Seton Hall are our last four teams in the field. USC, Santa Clara, Virginia Tech and Missouri are our first four teams out.

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This year’s Final Four is April 4-6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Who is our Field of 68? Here is a closer look:

* – Projected automatic bid
** – Last four in 

NCAA tournament Field of 68 projections

No. 1 Seeds

*Arizona (22-0, 9-0 Big 12)

Resume: KenPom 2, Net 3. The Wildcats are 9-0 in Quad 1 and have yet to lose.  Freshman Koa Peat averages 14.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. The Wildcats play Oklahoma State on Saturday.

*Michigan (20-1, 10-1 Big Ten)

Resume: KenPom 1, Net 1. The Wolverines are scoring 90.5 points per game and piled up a pair of huge victories against Nebraska and Michigan State last week. Eight players average at least seven points per game. Michigan plays Penn State before a trip to rival Ohio State on Sunday.

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*Duke (20-1, 9-0 ACC)

Resume: KenPom: 3, Net: 2. Duke plays Boston College on Tuesday before the first…

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Publish date : 2026-02-02 16:08:00

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