Purdue, Connecticut lead top seeds in NCAA men's tournament Bracketology

We have reached the time of year when the word bracketology gets bandied about with more frequency wherever sports are discussed. We are here with our own attempt to project the NCAA men’s basketball tournament field.

As always, please keep the following in mind. There’s more than a full month left in the season, so a whole lot can change between now and Selection Sunday on March 17. As such, these projections will be updated twice a week for the remainder of the campaign.

In undertaking this exercise, we try to adhere to the same guidelines the NCAA committee will utilize to seed the field, avoiding games between conference opponents or other regular-season rematches in the early rounds if possible.

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The committee doesn’t really consider human polls – either the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll or the media rankings – in its deliberations. Nevertheless, the top seeds at this point would likely mirror the polls, as the metrics the committee does utilize would yield similar results.

Defending champ Connecticut is well-positioned for one of the top regional seeds, along with Purdue, North Carolina and Houston. The Huskies have taken charge in the hotly-contested Big East, and the Tar Heels have raced out to a 9-0 start in the ACC. Though the Boilermakers and Cougars are not currently at the top of the standings in their respective leagues, their résumés to date would merit strong No. 1 consideration. And just how helpful is it to be a No. 1 seed? The answer last year was, not at all. Historically, however, at least one and often more make it to the Final Four.

Last four in

Boise State, Colorado, Memphis, Utah.

First four out

Kansas State, Villanova, Washington State, Virginia.

Next four out

Nebraska, Princeton, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest.

Conference breakdown

Multi-bid leagues: Big 12 (10), SEC (8), Big East (5), Big Ten (5), Mountain West (5), American Athletic (3), ACC (3), Pac-12 (3), Atlantic 10 (2), West Coast (2).