Bracketology: Tennessee makes big move in projected bracket, jumps from a No. 3 seed to the top line

It was another chaotic weekend of college basketball. The top three teams in Friday’s projected bracket secured wins, but nine of the other 13 teams among the top four seeds lost, including all four of the previous No. 2 seeds (Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State and Florida).

That caused a bit of a shake-up that saw No. 3 seed Tennessee jump back up to the top line as the fourth No. 1 seed. That gives the SEC three teams on the top line of the bracket. If that happens this season, and I would not be surprised if it did, it would be the third time one conference put three teams in the bracket as No. 1 seeds.

The other times were with the ACC in 2019 (Duke, North Carolina, Virginia) and the Big East in 2009 (Louisville, Pitt, UConn). In each of those seasons, one of those teams emerged as the national champion.

Texas A&M and Purdue moved up to No. 2 seeds, while Iowa State and Kentucky dropped to the No. 3 line.

The Cyclones led the misery for the top three Big 12 teams in the bracket last Friday. They got drilled at home by Kansas State for their second straight loss. Kansas blew a 21-point lead – the largest in its history – in a loss at Baylor. Houston’s overtime loss at home to Texas Tech is relatively tame by comparison. 

Iowa State is at Kansas on Monday and each team’s desperation should be on full display. The Jayhawks have been uncharastically beatable at home this season. Relatively speaking, of course. Kansas has already lost to West Virginia and Houston at Phog Allen Fieldhouse and probably should have lost to UCF.

Bracketology top seeds

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

• There are still 13 SEC teams in the field, with seven among the top four seeds. Missouri is new to the top 16. Dennis Gates’ Tigers are off to a great start after an 0-18 SEC mark last season. They can make some noise this week with games at Tennessee and home to Texas A&M.
• For the purposes of the bracket, I always designate each conference’s AQ as the team with the fewest conference losses and using the NET as the tiebreaker. In the Summit League, that would be St. Thomas. However, the Tommies are still transitioning to Division I and as such, ineligible for the postseason. That means Omaha is in the bracket instead. St. Thomas is one of nine transitioning teams that are not yet eligible for the postseason.
• Another oddity is that Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference leader Marist is currently 16-3 and all nineteen of its games have been played against Quad 4 opponents. I have never put such a team in my bracket before. All of the Red Foxes’ future opponents are currently Quad 4 also except for the road games with Siena and Merrimack.
• Starting Tuesday I’ll be writing a Bubble Watch column nearly every day featuring teams in action that day and recaps from the day before. Also, teams on the bubble will appear on the bracket page at the bottom of the list of teams below the bracket itself.