Selection Sunday is basically Christmas Day for college basketball fans. All the days spent looking at college basketball bracketology predictions ends when the real bracket comes out. After making it through the COVID season, Baylor had the target on its back as the defending champions. However, there are plenty of teams worthy of cutting down the nets and being Cinderella this season. There will be no COVID cancellations this tournament. Just pure chaos.
Here is our final bracket and seed list for the 2021-22 season. You can also check out how we end up doing against all the bracketologists out there over at The Bracket Matrix.
LWOS 2021-22 Final College Basketball Bracketology
Top Seeds
The top seeds took shape before the last day of the season came. Gonzaga takes the top overall seed after sweeping the WCC. The Bulldogs are ranked first in most major metrics. Arizona is the second overall seed after sweeping the Pac 12. Kansas and Baylor take the final two spots thanks to the strength of their profiles and their league.
Kentucky is the fifth overall seed, just missing out on a top seed by falling in the SEC Tournament. Purdue gets the sixth overall seed after reaching the Big Ten final. Auburn and Tennessee give the SEC three two seeds. The Tigers faded a bit, but Tennessee surged after winning the SEC Tournament.
Villanova is the first three seed thanks to their Big East Tournament title. Texas Tech follows as the third best team in the Big 12. Duke fell to the three line after failing to capture the ACC Tournament. Wisconsin rounds out this line after sharing the Big Ten regular-season title.
UCLA takes the first four seed after coming up just short in the Pac 12 title game. Providence earns a top 16 seed by virtue of taking the Big East regular-season title. Illinois and Houston round out the four seeds. The Illini earned the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament, while Houston’s metrics give them the edge for the last spot.
College Basketball Bracketology Bubble Teams
The last four teams into the field are Michigan, Notre Dame, Wyoming, and Texas A&M. Michigan sneaks into the field thanks to their play over the final month of the season. Notre Dame finished second in the ACC this season, but doesn’t have much other than a win over Kentucky to make their profile stand out. Wyoming battled in a tough Mountain West and barely hung on to remain in the bracket. Texas A&M is the hottest of these teams having made it to the SEC Tournament Championship game to earn the last spot.
The first four teams out of the field are Rutgers, Wake Forest, Xavier, and SMU. Rutgers reeled off some impressive wins in February, but the metrics are just too low because of poor losses early in the season. Wake Forest’s ugly loss in the ACC Tournament to Boston College did too much damage. Xavier’s poor finish to the season drops a once-promising team all the way out. SMU would’ve had their fortunes turn out much differently if they could’ve beaten Memphis for a third time in the AAC Tournament. Instead, all four teams are looking at top seeds in the NIT.
Selection Sunday
The full field of 68 will be announced on CBS at 6pm EST. Be sure to tune in and found out where your favorite team ends up and to see how well we did predicting the field. Hopefully your favorite team makes the cut. Thanks for following along all season!
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