What The 2020 NCAA Tournament Bracket Might Have Looked Like
There were no selections this Selection Sunday.
With the NCAA tournament having been canceled because of the growing coronavirus crisis, the committee that selects and seeds the 68 teams for the event chose not to release a bracket.
But fear not.
SI bracketologists Jim Root and Ky McKeon of Three Man Weave have done the committee's job for it by projecting what the field might have looked like had the tournament been played as scheduled -- with a few important caveats.
Any conference that played its tournament championship game to award an NCAA automatic bid would have that autobid stand (for example, Boston University keeps the Patriot League's spot in the field of 68). For the rest of the conferences, the autobid was rewarded to the regular-season champ (in the event of a tie, it went to the No. 1 seed).
In addition, any conference tournaments that started and didn't finish (including the ACC, which played first- and second-round games), had those results thrown out. Otherwise, it would create too much unevenness amongst bubble teams, some of whom got an extra game and some of whom didn't.
That means NC State's win against Pittsburgh on Wednesday neither helped nor hurt a resume coach Kevin Keatts confidently proclaimed was already good enough to earn an NCAA bid.
Root and McKeon aggreed with Keatts, at least to a point.
While they put the Wolfpack into the field, they penciled Keatts' team into a First Four game in Dayton against Xavier. It would have been a rematch of a 2014 First Four matchup, won by the Wolfpack behind 25 points by T.J. Warren.
As one of the two No. 11 seeds in the Midwest Region, the winner of the game between the Wolfpack and Muskateers would then have been matched against sixth-seeded Iowa in Greensboro.
Also on that side of the bracket are No. 3 Kentucky, which would have played 14th-seeded Belmont; No. 7 Illinois, which was matched against No. 10 Texas Tech and second-seeded Villanova, which would have been paired against Winthrop to begin the tournament either thursday or Friday.
Here are all the bracket projections by Three Man Weave. Below is a text version that includes NCAA tournament subregional sites as well.
South Region
Omaha:
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Robert Morris / NC Central
(8) LSU vs. (9) Arizona State
Sacramento:
(5) West Virginia vs. (12) Liberty
(4) Wisconsin vs. (13) North Texas
St. Louis:
(6) Penn State vs. (11) Utah State
(3) Creighton vs. (14) Bradley
Tampa:
(7) Michigan vs. (10) Marquette
(2) Florida State vs. (15) Little Rock
Midwest Region
St. Louis:
(1) Baylor vs. (16) Boston University / Prairie View A&M
(8) Colorado vs. (9) Saint Mary's
Tampa:
(5) Auburn vs. (12) Yale
(4) Maryland vs. (13) Akron
Greensboro:
(6) Iowa vs. (11) NC State / Xavier
(3) Kentucky vs. (14) Belmont
Albany:
(7) Illinois vs. (10) Texas Tech
(2) Villanova vs. (15) Winthrop
West Region
Spokane:
(1) Gonzaga vs. (16) Eastern Washington
(8) Florida vs. (9) USC
Omaha:
(5) Butler vs. (12) Cincinnati
(4) Louisville vs. (13) Vermont
Albany:
(6) BYU vs. (11) Richmond / UCLA
(3) Seton Hall vs. (14) Hofstra
Sacramento:
(7) Arizona vs. (10) Rutgers
(2) San Diego State vs. (15) North Dakota State
East Region
Cleveland:
(1) Dayton vs. (16) Siena
(8) Providence vs. (9) Oklahoma
Spokane:
(5) Ohio State vs. (12) Stephen F. Austin
(4) Oregon vs. (13) New Mexico State
Cleveland:
(6) Virginia vs. (11) East Tennessee State
(3) Michigan State vs. (14) UC Irvine
Greensboro:
(7) Houston vs. (10) Indiana
(2) Duke vs. (15) Northern Kentucky