Sunday, March 15, 2026

The Bracket Project 2026 Guess

1 - Duke, Michigan, Arizona, Florida

2 - Houston, Iowa State, Connecticut, Michigan State

3 - Illinois, Purdue, Gonzaga, Virginia

4 - Vanderbilt, Kansas, Nebraska, Alabama

5 - Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Arkansas, St. John's

6 - Tennessee, Louisville, BYU, St. Mary's

7 - UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Miami (FL)

8 - Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Utah State

9 - Iowa, Villanova, TCU, St. Louis

10 - Texas A&M, Santa Clara, North Carolina State, Central Florida

11 - SMU, Auburn, VCU, Missouri, Miami (OH), South Florida

12 - McNeese, State, Akron, Northern Iowa, High Point

13 - Hofstra, California Baptist, Hawaii, North Dakota State

14 - Wright State, Troy, Kennesaw State, Pennsylvania

15 - Idaho, Furman, UMBC, Queens

16 - Tennessee State, Siena, Howard, Long Island, Lehigh, Prairie View A&M

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Monday, February 23, 2026

2026 Conference Championship Schedule




PDF Link

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Monday, November 3, 2025

The 2026 Bracket Matrix Links

Here are all the links used for the 2026 Bracket Matrix. 

New sites for 2025-26 as well as sites that do not meet one of the criteria for qualification will only be included in the preseason matrix and the final matrix of the season. These sites are listed on the bottom of this post.

Former Champions

The Bracket Project

5-Year Weighted Average > 0

Andrew Rowlands Bracketology (formerly Big 12 Basketblog)
HoopsHD - Jon Teitel

An above average matrix score in at least 1 season of the previous 5 seasons tracked

Swiss Army Sports (formerly Memphis Gameday)

Media Exemptions

Sites that do not meet any of the above criteria

New sites for 2025-26

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Welcome Back! 2026 Edition

Welcome to yet another season of The Bracket Project!

If you want to contribute to the matrix, please read this:

1. Sites must satisfy at least one of three criteria in order to be tracked in the matrix during the season. Those who do not meet any of these criteria and sites which are new to the matrix in 2025-26 will still be linked on the links page but will only be included in the final matrix of the season for scoring purposes. The requirements are:
  • Former champions
  • 5-Year Weighted Average >= 0
  • An above average score in at least 1 year during the previous 5 years tracked.
2. You need to set up a place to post your bracket that will be consistent throughout the season. A blog will do. A web site will most definitely do. A bracket posted on a message board will generally not do. The link will change frequently and will get lost in various discussions, making it difficult for the average reader to find it. (Exception: A message board or Twitter feed devoted exclusively to bracketology or at least, a sticky post.) Also, you can't post it on Facebook or some other social networking site because not everyone can access it. In order to promote discussion, an email address or some comment platform should be provided so that readers can praise or criticize your bracket.

3. You have to tell me where your site is. (Fill out the form here.) I don't have a sixth sense when it comes to finding these things. I rely on you and readers like you to tell me what kind of sites to add to this page.

4. A seed list is good enough for the matrix but if you build a bracket, remember that the NCAA sets up procedures and principles for building a bracket. Read them! A seriously flawed bracket won't be posted. However, if your seedings are out of the norm, I'll still most likely post it provided that the principles are followed and you have an explanation as to why you've built the bracket like you did. I reserve the right to not post a bracket with something like a winless team as a #1 seed.

5. Brackets and seed lists should be your opinion only. Don't just copy another site's work (or the matrix) and call it your own.

6. Please date-stamp your bracket. Brackets of a certain age will be removed from the list, and if there's no date-stamp, obviously I can't tell when your bracket was updated.

7. To make it easier on me, please format your bracket so that at least half of it can be seen on the screen at any one time. Brackets must have at least 48 seeded teams to be listed in the matrix. Sites that merely list teams with no seeding can be linked to the page but will not be added to the matrix. To be listed in the final matrix of the season, you must have all 68 seeded teams.

8. No new sites will be added to the 2026 page after March 8, 2026 unless you appear in the rankings page (linked to the side), in which case, you will be grandfathered in. In addition, no bracket will be accepted to the final matrix of the season after the beginning of the Selection Sunday show.

9. Link to my site! I've linked to yours!

10. I'm only one guy. If this could pay me what I get at my regular job, I'd update this site 24/7. That simply is not the case. If someone else can do this better, I'll gladly step aside, but from the looks of it after all these years, I'm still the only (crazy) one. So if you don't see your site on here, an update hasn't been done for a while or I don't respond to you, I hope you'll understand why.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2025

My Crazy Tournament Expansion/Reform Idea

64 teams was perfect. 68 is a fine compromise. Most fans do not want tournament expansion but fans aren't in charge of college basketball so all this expansion talk makes the idea seem inevitable. However, I don't want to see more games between two mediocre teams.

So what's my crazy, far-fetched proposal? Make all the at-larges participate in a play-in draft. Like conference tournament winners, you should win your way into the bracket.

First, set aside the conference tourney champions (there will be 32 once the Pac-12 returns). 

The top 64 at-large teams would be determined by WAB ranking. A team must also have a record at or above .500. Using a ranking system leaves the committee out of the selection process. 

The top 32 teams form Group A and would get to host their play-in game. We saw during the CFP that fans will happily flock to home games with meaning.

In a new made-for-tv selection draft, the top-ranked Group A team would get to choose any opponent from Group B (the other 32 at-larges). Then the 2nd-ranked Group A team would choose its opponent from the remaining teams and so on.

Imagine the endless debate we could have. Does a school simply pick the worst ranked school left on the board? Would an East Coast school pick a West Coast school to force them to fly cross country on short notice? Would a school pick their arch rival just because? 

For illustrative purposes, these were the top 64 at-larges ranked by NCAA WAB this year with a record at or above .500. Auburn would get the first pick of any of the teams on the right-hand side. With the last pick in the draft, Arkansas gets a home game against the last team remaining.



After the play-in games, the committee would create a 64-team bracket with the 32 play-in winners and the 32 conference auto-bids. Then, proceed with the tournament like we always do.

For the 32 play-in teams that do not win, they would be free to play in any of the other postseason tournaments like the NIT or the new CB Crown. They can also opt-out at this point if they so choose.

With this proposal, expansion is technically achieved, it increases the importance of conference championships, makes the play-in round must-watch TV and potentially improves the field for the secondary tournaments.



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Sunday, March 16, 2025

The Bracket Project 2025 Guess

1 - Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida
2 - Tennessee, Alabama, St. John's, Michigan State
3 - Texas Tech, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa State
4 - Texas A&M, Maryland, Arizona, Michigan
5 - Purdue, Clemson, Oregon, Ole Miss
6 - Missouri, BYU, UCLA, Illinois
7 - Memphis, Louisville, Kansas, St. Mary's
8 - Marquette, Gonzaga, Connecticut, Creighton
9 - Mississippi State, New Mexico, Georgia, Utah State
10 - Baylor, Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia
11 - Vanderbilt, Drake, VCU, San Diego State, Colorado State
12 - Indiana, UNC, UC San Diego, Liberty, McNeese State
13 - Yale, High Point, Akron, Grand Canyon
14 - Lipscomb, Troy, NC-Wilmington, Montana
15 - Robert Morris, Wofford, Omaha, Bryant
16 - Norfolk State, American, SIUE, St. Francis (PA), Mount St. Mary's, Alabama State
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Saturday, February 22, 2025

2025 Conference Tournament Schedule





 

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