Bracketology: Auburn is top seed with Alabama, Duke and Florida also No. 1s as NCAA reveals early bracket

The NCAA revealed its top 16 seeds Saturday and to no one’s surprise, the members of the selection committee felt that the SEC was the most dominant league in college basketball.

There are five SEC teams in the top six overall and six total among the 16 teams revealed.

Auburn is the No. 1 national seed with Alabama the overall No. 2. They meet Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, but the committee, while they did not discuss it in their meeting, did not feel that the Crimson Tide would surpass Auburn with a win on Saturday. That is how dominant Auburn has been. The Tigers have 13 Quad 1 wins. No one else has more than eight, although Alabama would pick up a ninth if it beats Auburn.

According to the NCAA, there has never been a final bracket with one conference having five of the top eight teams since it started releasing its seed list in 2012. The Big Ten had four of the top eight in 2021. There has also never been a case where one conference had six of the top 16. The record is five and it has happened five times. Most recently, the Big 12 and Big Ten each had five of the top 16 in 2021.

NCAA official early top seeds

Check out Palm’s latest bracket, Bubble Watch and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.

Building the bracket

Among the teams left out of the top 16 in Saturday’s reveal, Michigan State was the biggest surprise for me. The Spartans were strongly considered for the No. 16 spot. They had wins similar in quality to St. John’s but the home loss to Indiana stands out and the Johnnies were slightly better in the metrics. 

Marquette also garnered consideration for the No. 16 spot. The Golden Eagles have wins over Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin, but also a loss to St. John’s. Maybe Marquette should try to get into the Big Ten.

Big 12 lands five in top 16

The Big 12 was second in the number of teams with five. There were three from the Big Ten and one each from the ACC and Big East.

As always, once the first game ends on Saturday, the committee’s rankings will be obsolete. We will get the real bracket a month from now.

Almost 83.9% of the teams that appeared in the bracket reveal show have gone on to be in the top 16 at the end, according to the NCAA. Of course, there was no final bracket in 2020.

The NCAA also noted that during the first five years of the Bracket Reveal show, again skipping 2020, three of the four No. 1 seeds during the early reveal were No. 1 seeds at the end. In 2023, all four of them were still top seeds in March.

In a bit of ranking news, St. John’s will not be considered the home team for the Big East Tournament, which is played on the Johnnies’ home floor at Madison Square Garden. However, the conference runs the event and evenly distributes the tickets to the member schools, so the NCAA felt this would qualify as neutral. .

NCAA’s top 16 seeds