March Madness bracket predictions 5.0: Projecting the Field of 68 for 2026 NCAA Tournament

March Madness bracket predictions 5.0: 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.

Are we forgetting that Florida is the defending national champion?

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The Gators have won nine straight games under coach Todd Golden heading into the final week of the regular season. Golden and Arkansas coach John Calipari had a heated back-and-forth during Florida’s 111-77 blowout victory on Friday.

Florida is now one of just four teams with double-digit victories in Quad 1. The Gators are 10-5, which trails only Arizona (13-2), Duke (12-2) and Michigan (11-1). That is why Florida is in position to take that fourth No. 1 seed – even if we have them just behind UConn heading into our latest 2026 NCAA tournament bracket projections.

A few conference tournaments will kick this week – and we are less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday.

Santa Clara, TCU, New Mexico and VCU are our last Four Teams In. Cal, Auburn, Indiana and Seton Hall 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.

DECOURCY: Why expanding the NCAA field is pointless

Moved in: Central Arkansas, Tennessee State, Troy, VCU

Moved out: Appalachian State, Auburn, Austin Peay, Southeast Missouri State

Who is in our latest Field of 68? A closer look:

* – Projected automatic bid
** – Last four in 

NCAA tournament Field of 68 projections

No. 1 Seeds

*Duke (27-2, 15-1 ACC)

Resume: KenPom: 1, Net: 1. The Blue Devils beat Notre Dame and Virginia by an average of 33 points per game last week. Cameron Boozer has 16 double-doubles this season for Duke – which closes against rivals NC State and North Carolina this week.

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*Michigan (27-2, 17-1 Big Ten)

Resume: KenPom 2, Net 2. Michigan clinched the outright Big Ten championship with a 84-70 victory at Illinois, but backup point guard LJ Cason was lost for the season with a torn ACL. That puts more…

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Publish date : 2026-03-02 15:08:00

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