{"id":634628,"date":"2026-03-02T15:31:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634628\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:31:49","slug":"2026-mens-ncaa-tournament-seed-projections-illinois-florida-move-up-gonzaga-stumbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634628\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament Seed Projections: Illinois, Florida Move Up; Gonzaga Stumbles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid an eventful men’s college basketball weekend, there has been some significant movement in the upper lines of FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy\u2019s latest NCAA Tournament projections.<\/p>\n

Big moves for Florida<\/a>, which crushed Arkansas<\/a>, 111-77, while Illinois<\/a> and Purdue<\/a> are back up thanks to losses from Iowa State<\/a> to Texas Tech<\/a> and Kansas<\/a> to Arizona<\/a> on Saturday. Nebraska<\/a> remains going strong after beating unranked USC<\/a>, but Gonzaga<\/a> dropped to a No. 4 seed, thanks to a stunning 70-59 loss to Saint Mary’s<\/a> on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the SEC<\/a> \u2014 which could get at least 10 teams in the men’s NCAA Tournament<\/a> this year \u2014 is on the rise behind Florida with Alabama<\/a>, Kentucky<\/a> and Missouri<\/a> making upward moves.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Florida guard Isaiah Brown (Photo by David Buono\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

[COLLEGE HOOPS: 4 Takeaways From UConn’s Win Over St. John’s]<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is a complete look at DeCourcy’s NCAA Tournament seed list:<\/p>\n

No. 1 seeds<\/p>\n

1. Duke
2. Michigan
3. Arizona
4. Connecticut<\/p>\n

No. 2 seeds<\/p>\n

5. Florida
6. Houston
7. Illinois
8. Purdue<\/p>\n

No. 3 seeds<\/p>\n

9. Alabama
10. Michigan State
11. Iowa State
12. Nebraska<\/p>\n

No. 4 seeds<\/p>\n

13. Texas Tech
14. Gonzaga
15. Kansas
16. Virginia<\/p>\n

No. 5 seeds<\/p>\n

17. Arkansas
18. North Carolina
19. St. John’s
20. Vanderbilt<\/p>\n

No. 6 seeds<\/p>\n

21. Tennessee
22. Louisville
23. BYU<\/a>
24. Kentucky<\/p>\n

No. 7 seeds<\/p>\n

25. Villanova
26. Saint Mary’s
27. Saint Louis
28. Wisconsin<\/p>\n

No. 8 seeds<\/p>\n

29. Utah State
30. Miami Hurricanes
31. UCF
32. Miami RedHawks<\/p>\n

No. 9 seeds<\/p>\n

33. Georgia
34. Clemson
35. Iowa
36. Missouri<\/p>\n

No. 10 seeds<\/p>\n

37. NC State
38. UCLA
39. SMU
40. Texas\u00a0<\/p>\n

No. 11 seeds<\/p>\n

41. Texas A&M
42. TCU
43. New Mexico vs. 44. Indiana
45. Santa Clara vs. 46. VCU<\/p>\n

No. 12 seeds<\/p>\n

47. Belmont
48. South Florida
49. Yale
50. Liberty<\/p>\n

No. 13 seeds<\/p>\n

51. Stephen F. Austin
52. UNC Wilmingon
53. High Point
54. Utah Valley<\/p>\n

No. 14 seeds<\/p>\n

55. Hawaii
56. Navy
57. North Dakota State
58. Austin Peay<\/p>\n

No. 15 seeds<\/p>\n

59. Portland State
60. Wright State
61. Troy
62. East Tennessee State<\/p>\n

No. 16 seeds<\/p>\n

63. Merrimack
64. LIU<\/a>
65. Howard
66. UMBC<\/a>
67. Bethune-Cookman
68. Morehead State<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s never too early to check in on the bubble.<\/p>\n

According to DeCourcy’s seed list, Ohio State, Auburn, Cal and Virginia are the first four teams out of the tournament, while San Diego State, USC, Seton Hall and West Virginia are the next four out.<\/p>\n

Selection Sunday is less than one month away, and this list will inevitably evolve. For now, DeCourcy\u2019s latest seed list offers a clear snapshot of who\u2019s rising, who\u2019s falling and which programs are already building the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s they\u2019ll need when March arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid an eventful men’s college basketball weekend, there has been some significant movement in the upper lines of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[1982,7,217,691,950,4250,2811,7367,3730,3491,1043,231,772,1544,8905,9449,12513,1116,218,4262,923,849,3471],"class_list":{"0":"post-634628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-arizona-wildcats","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-duke-blue-devils","12":"tag-florida-gators","13":"tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","14":"tag-houston-cougars","15":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","16":"tag-kansas-jayhawks","17":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","18":"tag-michigan-wolverines","19":"tag-ncaa","20":"tag-ncaa-basketball","21":"tag-ncaab","22":"tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","23":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","24":"tag-purdue-boilermakers","25":"tag-sec","26":"tag-st-johns-red-storm","27":"tag-ucla-bruins","28":"tag-uconn-huskies","29":"tag-usc-trojans","30":"tag-wisconsin-badgers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116160308548718703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}