PRESEASON Men's CBB BRACKETOLOGY (made 10/24/25)

 Hey y'all! Here's a preseason bracket post. A google sheet with the bracket can be found here:

PRESEASON BRACKET - 10/24/25

If a team is bolded and italicized, it's an Autobid for its respective league

Seed List:

1. (1.) Houston
2. (1.) Florida
3. (1.) Illinois
4. (1.) Duke
5. (2.) Purdue
6. (2.) UConn
7. (2.) Texas Tech
8. (2.) Kentucky
9. (3.) Michigan
10. (3.) St. John's
11. (3.) BYU
12. (3.) Alabama
13. (4.) Tennessee
14. (4.) UCLA
15. (4.) Gonzaga
16. (4.) Iowa State
17. (5.) Kansas
18. (5.) Arizona
19. (5.) Ole Miss
20. (5.) Louisville
    
21. (6.) Creighton
22. (6.) Baylor
23. (6.) (The) Ohio State
24. (6.) Missouri
    
25. (7.) Oregon
26. (7.) St Mary's
27. (7.) Vanderbilt
28. (7.) VCU
    
29. (8.) San Diego State 
30. (8.) Arkansas
31. (8.) USC
32. (8.) Mississippi State
    
33. (9.) Wisconsin
34. (9.) Michigan State
35. (9.) NC State
36. (9.) Utah State
    
37. (10.) Maryland
38. (10.) Clemson
39. (10.) Washington
40. (10.) Texas A&M
41. (11.) Marquette 
42. (11.) Georgia (FF)
43. (11.) South Florida (FF)
44. (11.) Auburn (FF)
45. (11.) Cincinnati (FF)
46. (11.) Memphis 
47. (12.) UC Irvine 
48. (12.) Akron 
49. (12.) Yale 
50. (12.) Bradley 
51. (13.) McNeese State 
52. (13.) High Point
53. (13.) Liberty 
54. (13.) Utah Valley 
55. (14.) UNC Wilmington 
56. (14.) UT - Chattanooga 
57. (14.) Troy 
58. (14.) Montana 
59. (15.) St Thomas MN
60. (15.) Little Rock
61. (15.) Youngstown State
62. (15.) Southern 
63. (16.) Navy 
64. (16.) Vermont 
65. (16.) Eastern Kentucky (FF)
66. (16.) Norfolk State (FF)
67. (16.) Marist (FF)
68. (16.) Long Island (FF)

First Four Out:

Providence

Boise State

UNC

Texas

Next Four Out:

Kansas State

Pittsburgh

North Texas

Dayton

Teams to Watch:

Any other non-South Carolina SEC Team (I.E. LSU and Oklahoma)

Indiana

Tulane

Belmont

Iowa

TCU

George Mason

Notes from this:

This is a pretty vanilla bracket here to start the year, with offseason moves, KenPom, and general feels as my main source of my bracket predictions

KenPom is my basis of most autobids, I switched a few teams around if their rankings were close enough. I do think Illinois' super-transfer squad will do really well, along with UK returning Oweh. I don't trust UNC right now, and I don't trust K-State after last year's Coleman Hawkins issue.

My dark horse "suddenly good" team is USF this year. A year after the tragedy of their head coach, USF seems poised to make a good run - their first good indicator will be how they handle a top 100 George Washington team at home two Saturdays from now. They're listed as an at-large due to the massive KenPom gap between them and Memphis (lowest rated team as an at-large, at 104, which would never realistically make the tournament - however, this is the preseason. When we have actual games that aren't exhibitions to base stuff on, this will change).

Congrats! You made it to the bottom of a random bracketology post. Other than the obvious UF-Arizona match, your best opening games are JMU-Akron, Troy - Kent State, and Boston College @ FAU. Do with that what you will.