Everybody seems to have an opinion on who is in and who is out of the NCAA Tournament. It’s a lot of fun to speculate on possible match-ups a month before the Big Dance begins, but until all of the conference tournaments are played it is really just shooting in the dark. There are over 30 automatic bid going out to conference tournament champions and also to the winner of the Ivy League. Some of those tournaments will be won by teams nobody is even talking about right now. They always do. And when they do, they knock somebody from the “bubble” out and into the NIT.

Without knowing how many of these party crashers there will be, we can still make some good guesses on the top seeds. Here is how we think the top seeds will line up by the end of the season:

#1 seeds- Indiana Hoosiers, Miami Hurricanes, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Florida Gators.

We like these four teams to win their conference tournaments. Of course all four probably won’t but if they win the rest of their regular season games and get to the finals of the conference tournament, that should  be good enough.

#2 seeds- Duke Blue Devils, Syracuse Orange, Kansas Jayhawks, Arizona Wildcats.

There is very little drop off between the one seeds and two seeds. Any of these teams could swap spots and it wouldn’t surprise anyone. If Miami doesn’t win the ACC Tournament, then Duke likely gets it.

#3 seeds- Louisville Cardinals, Michigan State Spartans, Michigan Wolverines, New Mexico Lobos-

Some in this group can argue they deserve a higher seed. They would be right. But Michigan and Michigan State are unlucky enough to be in the toughest conference in college basketball and the Cards are in the second toughest. New Mexico is unlucky enough to play in a tough conference that plays in relative obscurity.

#4 seeds- Georgetown Hoyas, Memphis Tigers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Butler Bulldogs.

Memphis likely wins out from here. Don’t be shocked to see Georgetown with the Big East Tournament and get an even higher seed. Oklahoma State could move up to with a Big 12 Tournament championship. Butler has some very impressive wins over two of our number one seeds.

These are our top 16 seeds as of right now. Tomorrow check back and we will give you our five through eight seeds. It starts to get tricky there. A lot of teams are bunched together in the middle. Eight seeds are where you start getting to the bubble teams.

, , , ,