{"id":644111,"date":"2026-03-06T22:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/644111\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T22:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:54:19","slug":"2026-ncaa-tournament-projections-michigan-state-holds-strong-big-ten-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/644111\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NCAA Tournament Projections: Michigan State Holds Strong; Big Ten Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">March has arrived, and no conference has more chaos than the Big Ten.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">In his latest NCAA Tournament projections, FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy outlines a league defined by elite talent at the top and multiple teams clinging to at-large hopes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">No team has surged more than <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/michigan-state-spartans-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michigan State<\/a>. Winners of five straight, the Spartans have climbed from a No. 4 seed to a No. 2 seed in DeCourcy\u2019s latest projections after taking care of business at home against <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/rutgers-scarlet-knights-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rutgers<\/a> on Thursday. With a road matchup against rival <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/michigan-wolverines-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Michigan<\/a> to close out the regular season, Tom Izzo&#8217;s team has a chance to cement its standing as a 2-seed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">DeCourcy&#8217;s &#8220;Last Four In&#8221; and &#8220;First Four Out&#8221; remain unchanged, while Cincinnati, Seton Hall, San Diego State and Oklahoma State have fallen to the &#8220;Next Four Out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">With that, DeCourcy shares his latest NCAA Men&#8217;s Basketball Tournament projections:<\/p>\n<p>EAST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> SOUTH REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> MIDWEST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> WEST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">And it\u2019s never too early to check in on the bubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">According to DeCourcy&#8217;s projections, Ohio State, Santa Clara, VCU and New Mexico are the last four teams in the tournament, while Indiana, Auburn, Cal and Virginia Tech are the first four out.<\/p>\n<p><img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">As for conference representation, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/southeastern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SEC<\/a> leads the way with 10 teams, while the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-ten\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big Ten<\/a> has nine teams. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/acc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ACC<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Big 12<\/a> each have eight teams in DeCourcy&#8217;s latest tournament projections. The <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-east\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big East<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/west-coast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">West Coast<\/a> have three teams represented, while the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/mountain-west\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mountain West<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/a-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Atlantic 10<\/a> have two teams.<\/p>\n<p><img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d515c0f6=\"\">Selection Sunday is next weekend, and these projections will inevitably evolve. For now, DeCourcy\u2019s latest bracket forecast 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 Madness arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March has arrived, and no conference has more chaos than the Big Ten.\u00a0 In his latest NCAA Tournament&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[1982,1398,7,18360,217,691,950,2811,7367,6523,3491,1043,231,772,1544,11974,9449,11977,923,25678,12809],"class_list":["post-644111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-basketball","tag-california-golden-bears","tag-college-basketball","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida-gators","tag-houston-cougars","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-new-mexico-lobos","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-santa-clara-broncos","tag-uconn-huskies","tag-vcu-rams","tag-virginia-tech-hokies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116184695967535647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644111","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=644111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}