Today is the final day to make NCAA tourney predictions: Selection Sunday! HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel correctly picked 66 of the 68 teams that made the 2025 tourney: 62 of his 66 were within 1 spot of their actual seed and 52 were right on the money. Here is his final prediction of which 68 teams will hear their names called tonight. See below for his list of who will make the cut and if you agree or disagree then feel free to tweet us. To see how he stacks up with other websites (ranked 7th out of 186 bracket veterans over the past 5 years), check out: www.bracketmatrix.com
SEED: TEAM (CONFERENCE)
1: Duke (ACC): AUTO-BID
1: Michigan (Big 10)
1: Arizona (Big 12): AUTO-BID
1: Florida (SEC)
2: Connecticut (Big East)
2: Houston (Big 12)
2: Iowa State (Big 12)
2: Michigan State (Big 10)
3: Purdue (Big 10): AUTO-BID
3: Illinois (Big 10)
3: Gonzaga (WCC): AUTO-BID
3: Nebraska (Big 10)
4: Virginia (ACC)
4: Vanderbilt (SEC)
4: Alabama (SEC)
4: Kansas (Big 12)
5: Arkansas (SEC): AUTO-BID
5: St. John’s (Big East): AUTO-BID
5: Texas Tech (Big 12)
5: Wisconsin (Big 10)
6: Tennessee (SEC)
6: North Carolina (ACC)
6: Louisville (ACC)
6: BYU (Big 12)
7: Kentucky (SEC)
7: Miami FL (ACC)
7: UCLA (Big 10)
7: St. Mary’s (WCC)
8: Clemson (ACC)
8: Utah State (MWC): AUTO-BID
8: Georgia (SEC)
8: Villanova (Big East)
9: Ohio State (Big 10)
9: TCU (Big 12)
9: Iowa (Big 10)
9: St. Louis (A-10)
10: UCF (Big 12)
10: Texas A&M (SEC)
10: NC State (ACC)
10: Santa Clara (WCC)
11: VCU (A-10): AUTO-BID
11: South Florida (American): AUTO-BID
11: Missouri (SEC)
11: Miami OH (MAC)
11: SMU (ACC)
11: Texas (SEC)
12: Akron (MAC): AUTO-BID
12: McNeese (Southland): AUTO-BID
12: Northern Iowa (MVC): AUTO-BID
12: High Point (Big South): AUTO-BID
13: Hofstra (CAA): AUTO-BID
13: Cal Baptist (WAC): AUTO-BID
13: Hawaii (Big West): AUTO-BID
13: North Dakota State (Summit): AUTO-BID
14: Troy (Sun Belt): AUTO-BID
14: Penn (Ivy): AUTO-BID
14: Wright State (Horizon): AUTO-BID
14: Kennesaw State (C-USA): AUTO-BID
15: Tennessee State (OVC): AUTO-BID
15: Idaho (Big Sky): AUTO-BID
15: Furman (SoCon): AUTO-BID
15: Siena (MAAC): AUTO-BID
16: Queens (Atlantic Sun): AUTO-BID
16: UMBC (America East): AUTO-BID
16: LIU (NEC): AUTO-BID
16: Howard (MEAC): AUTO-BID
16: Lehigh (Patriot): AUTO-BID
16: Prairie View (SWAC): AUTO-BID
1ST 4 OUT
Auburn (SEC)
Indiana (Big 10)
New Mexico (MWC)
San Diego State (MWC)
The 2026 Hoops HD Selection Committee – Saturday, March 14th
Tonight was our third night of committee meetings; this was our busiest night to date. We began the day with three at-large bids available; Ole Miss’s loss to Arkansas came as a relief to everyone on the bubble since a bid thief would no longer come out of the SEC. The Atlantic 10 was a different story since Dayton defeated Saint Louis on a last-second shot and could steal a bid on Selection Sunday with a win against VCU.
As for the voting itself, we had Mother Miami, Texas and VCU as carryover teams from the previous round of voting. We debated all of the teams Under Consideration; nobody ended up being motioned off of the Under Consideration board. After debate, each Committee member nominated six teams and submitted choices to Chad (our Chairman). The top four teams that were added to the nomination board were New Mexico, San Diego State, SMU and South Florida (in the event they lose to Wichita State in the American title game).
In the final round of voting, Mother Miami and VCU were voted into the at-large field; there was a tie between SMU and Texas for the final spot and the final contingency spot (in the event that the A-10 doesn’t result in a stolen bid). SMU got the guaranteed at-large spot and Texas ended up getting the contingency bid; Texas would move to the First Four Out in the event that Dayton wins the A-10 title. Our first four teams out ended up being San Diego State, South Florida (at-large), New Mexico and Florida State. Auburn would be the other team moving up in the event that South Florida wins the American.
Our next task was to continue seeding the field; we included teams that were still alive (i.e. Louisiana Tech, Toledo, UC-Irvine, Utah Valley) at the time of voting. We ended up seeding 73 teams at the time, but at the time of posting the list went down to 71 teams. It will ultimately become 68 teams once the Ivy League, A-10 and American championship games go final and we will have two contingency brackets – one for South Florida winning the autobid and one for Wichita State winning the auto bid.
Update (2:15 AM) – We added California Baptist to the field after an incredible finish in the WAC Championship. The Lancers hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 30 seconds left; Utah Valley had a chance to tie the game in regulation and MISSED a dunk with 2.7 seconds on the clock. CBU ran out the clock for their first NCAA Division I Tournament bid.
We also did an initial scrub of the Master Seed List; click on the above graphic to see where things stood through games of Saturday night. We will meet at 2:30 PM later today to do a final scrub of the seed list and bracket the field based on what happens in this afternoon’s games. Keep an eye on our website for our final bracket as well as Jon Teitel’s final NCAA Tournament Bracket projection!