2025 College Basketball Bracket Update

Welcome to Bracket Yard’s home for the 2025 college basketball bracket update.  Some websites call it “bracketology.”  Our website has “bracket” in the name so I think it just goes without saying that we would get involved in such a thing.

Anyway, we will periodically update the below between now and Selection Sunday in March 2025.  Is your team on track to make the tournament?  Are they destined to fall short and sadden your educational institution of choice?  All will be revealed.

2025 College Basketball Bracket Update

Last Updated: January 20, 2025

A note on “AQ” teams: Our determination for the conference champions below is based off of the team which had the highest NET ranking on the date we issued this update.

Bracket Update: S-Curve (All Teams Ranked 1-68)

#	Team	Conf	AQ/At-Large
1	Auburn	SEC	AQ
2	Duke	ACC	AQ
3	Alabama	SEC	AL
4	Iowa State	Big East	AL
5	Tennessee	SEC	AL
6	Purdue	Big Ten	AL
7	Florida	SEC	AL
8	Kansas	Big 12	AL
9	Houston	Big 12	AQ
10	Kentucky	SEC	AL
11	Ole Miss	SEC	AL
12	Marquette	Big East	AQ
13	Oregon	Big Ten	AL
14	Illinois	Big Ten	AQ
15	Michigan State	Big Ten	AL
16	Mississippi State	SEC	AL
17	Michigan	Big Ten	AL
18	Texas A&M	SEC	AL
19	Arizona	Big 12	AL
20	Wisconsin	Big Ten	AL
21	Gonzaga	WCC	AQ
22	Connecticut	Big East	AL
23	Memphis	American	AQ
24	West Virginia	Big 12	AL
25	Louisville	ACC	AL
26	Clemson	ACC	AL
27	Utah State	MWC	AQ
28	Texas Tech	Big 12	AL
29	Creighton	Big East	AL
30	St. John’s	Big East	AL
31	UCLA	Big Ten	AL
32	Missouri	SEC	AL
33	Georgia	SEC	AL
34	Baylor	Big 12	AL
35	Vanderbilt	SEC	AL
36	Pittsburgh	ACC	AL
37	Oklahoma	SEC	AL
38	Saint Mary’s	WCC	AL
39	San Diego State	MWC	AL
40	Maryland	Big Ten	AL
41	North Carolina	ACC	AL
42	Ohio State	Big Ten	AL
43	Iowa	Big Ten	AL
44	Texas	SEC	AL
45	Cincinnati	Big 12	AL
46	UC-Irvine	Big West	AQ
47	Drake	MVC	AQ
48	VCU	A-10	AQ
49	McNeese	Southland	AQ
50	Arkansas State	Sun Belt	AQ
51	North Dakota State	Summit	AQ
52	Liberty	C-USA	AQ
53	Grand Canyon	WAC	AQ
54	Lipscomb	A-Sun	AQ
55	Yale	Ivy	AQ
56	UNC-Greensboro	Southern	AQ
57	Akron	MAC	AQ
58	Northern Colorado	Big Sky	AQ
59	High Point	Big South	AQ
60	Elon	CAA	AQ
61	Purdue-Fort Wayne	Horizon	AQ
62	Central Connecticut State	NEC	AQ
63	Southern	SWAC	AQ
64	Quinnipiac	MAAC	AQ
65	Bryant	Am East	AQ
66	Norfolk State	MEAC	AQ
67	Little Rock	OVC	AQ
68	Colgate	Patriot	AQ

Last Eight In

8	Saint Mary’s	WCC
7	San Diego State	MWC
6	Maryland	Big Ten
5	North Carolina	ACC
4	Ohio State	Big Ten
3	Iowa	Big Ten
2	Texas	SEC
1 (Last)	Cincinnati	Big 12

First Ten Out

1	Arizona State	Big 12
2	Nebraska	Big Ten
3	SMU	ACC
4	UCF	Big 12
5	Northwestern	Big Ten
6	Xavier	Big East
7	New Mexico	MWC
8	Indiana	Big Ten
9	Penn State	Big Ten
10	Arkansas	SEC

2025 College Basketball Bracket Update: Projected Bracket

MIDWEST REGION (INDIANAPOLIS)

Lexington, Kentucky

1	Duke (ACC)*
16	Bryant (AmEast)* OR Norfolk State (MEAC)*

8	St. John’s (Big East)
9	Vanderbilt (SEC)

Providence, Rhode Island

4	Mississippi State (SEC)
13	North Dakota State (Summit)*

5	Michigan (Big Ten)
12	Arkansas State (Sun Belt)*

Wichita, Kansas

3	Houston (American)
14	High Point (Big South)*

6	Louisville (ACC)
11	Ohio State (Big Ten) OR Texas (SEC)

Raleigh, North Carolina

2	Tennessee (SEC)
15	Central Connecticut State (NEC)*

7	Clemson (ACC)
10	San Diego State (MWC)

SOUTH REGION (ATLANTA)

Lexington, Kentucky

1	Auburn (SEC)*
16	Little Rock (OVC)* or Colgate (Patriot)*

8	Creighton (Big East)
9	Missouri (SEC)

Denver, Colorado

4	Illinois (Big Ten)
13	Lipscomb (A-Sun)*

5	Arizona (Big 12)
12	Drake (MVC)*

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

3	Kentucky (SEC)
14	Akron(MAC)*

6	Connecticut (Big East)
11	Cincinnati (Big 12)

Cleveland, Ohio

2	Purdue (Big Ten)
15	Purdue-Fort Wayne (Horizon)*

7	Texas Tech (Big 12)
10	Oklahoma (SEC)

EAST REGION (NEWARK)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1	Alabama (SEC)
16	Quinnipiac (MAAC)*

8	UCLA (Big Ten)
9	Baylor (Big 12)

Providence, Rhode Island

4	Michigan State (Big Ten)
13	Yale (Ivy)*

5	Texas A&M (SEC)
12	VCU (A-10)*

Seattle, Washington

3	Oregon (Big Ten)
14	Grand Canyon (WAC)*

6	Gonzaga (WCC)*
11	UC-Irvine (Big West)*

Raleigh, North Carolina

2	Florida (SEC)
15	Elon (CAA)*

7	West Virginia (Big 12)
10	Maryland (Big Ten)

WEST REGION (SAN FRANCISCO)

Cleveland, Ohio

1	Iowa State (Big 12)
16	Southern (SWAC)*

8	Georgia (SEC)
9	Pittsburgh (ACC)

Denver, Colorado

4	Marquette (Big East)*
13	Liberty (C-USA)*

5	Wisconsin (Big Ten)
12	McNeese (Southland)*

Wichita, Kansas

3	Ole Miss (SEC)
14	UNC-Greensboro (Southern)*

6	Memphis (American)*
11	North Carolina (ACC)

Seattle, Washington

2	Kansas (Big 12)
15	Northern Colorado (Big Sky)*

7	Utah State (MWC)*
10	Saint Mary’s (WCC)

Bracket Update Notes (Most Recent at Top)

January 20

It took a perfect storm of losing a big game and other teams in position doing well, but Marquette dropped from the final one seed to a four. On the S-Curve, they were actually in position for a three, but sacrifices had to be made to keep the same conference out of too many pods, and not overly screw top teams on travel.

Auburn and Duke are the two teams to beat this season.

Ohio State is a team that we have in, but they almost do not deserve it. Just the teams below them deserve it a little less. Nebraska has played its way out of the field for now, losing four in a row.

January 15

We issued a brief video update to account for a busy day in college basketball the night earlier, with a few changes to the top four lines.

January 14

A few big shake-ups, as a little bit of movement can produce a large swing in NET. There were some teams that had wins convert into Quadrants 1 and 2, which is how we ended up with Arizona and Texas Tech back in the dance.

Marquette has a very strong resume, about as good as Iowa State’s. It was difficult picking between them for the last 1-seed.

Oregon has one of the better resumes out there, with seven Q1 wins, and I looked for ways to push them onto the 2-line. Alas, they are one spot short because the others in front of them did not deserve to fall back off of it.

We were a little more generous this time with Houston, but they need to resolve the situation of no Q1 wins. They are nowhere near being a 1-seed as a result, despite their high NET.

Iowa is in, but a little iffy. They are the only at-large besides Houston (at the moment) to have no Q1 wins.

January 6

This is our first round of bracket assembly for the year.  At this point, there are a lot of undeveloped resumes, so I would not get too bent out of shape if your preferred team is not here.  Give it about a month for conference play to seep in, and we should have a much better view of where a particular team is going by February.

One team I find particularly interesting is Texas Tech.  They have a high NET ranking, but their resume is undeserving of the tournament otherwise.  Some other prognosticators have them in, but we do not.

If Memphis did not have that Quad 3 loss, they would be a high seed.  Aside from that, they have one of the more impressive team sheets so far.

Marquette has an excellent resume to this point, and one that I think is deserving of a one-seed.  Not everyone agrees, but this should make the Golden Eagles fans very happy.

We have Houston as a five despite their very high NET ranking, and even at that, it’s kind of generous.  They have no Quad 1 wins as of yet while every other team between 1 and 38, except them, on our S-Curve has at least one.  Most have at least two.  If not for that NET, we would probably have them in an 8-9 matchup somewhere.  The good news for them is that they still have time to work on the resume, and it needs beefing up in some way.

In two pods do we have two teams from the same conference (the SEC) potentially meeting in the second round, which would require at least one to win a play-in game.  This is not ideal, but likely to change.  The SEC has a lot of teams on the two, seven, and ten lines, and without wholly screwing someone out of their rightful seed, we’ll just have to live with it for the time being. As of now, we have the SEC as an eye-popping 12-bid conference, which is in part due to them being good and in part due to the conference being gigantic. It is almost unavoidable that some will encounter each other.