Seed List
This year we are including the full Seed List with our bracket updates. As time permits I’ll try to update the list more frequently. The actual Seed List is updated daily. Early in the season, teams tend to move more freely and quickly as the overall body of work is smaller. Below are two tables used to display the current s-curve – a tool used by the Selection Committee to seed teams into the bracket.
A couple of things to note:
Teams listed in ALL CAPS are those currently deemed to earn the automatic conference bid to the tournament (with the exception of teams that use abbreviations like UCLA, LSU).
The S-Curve / Seed List is not meant to be a poll. It is a ranking or listing of teams based on the overall field at the time of publication. Although we’ve seen it with Wichita State and Gonzaga in recent years – and rightfully so – teams outside the major (Power 5) conferences have extra work to do in reaching the top two seed lines. Whether it’s RPI, KenPem or some other metric, a variety of factors go into a Seed List at the end of the season. The Seed List reflects the 68-team field – and next contenders – not the entire college hoops landscape.
Updated: March 1, 2015
To make it easier to follow, I didn’t use an actual “S” shape on the table; rather the highest seed on each line is to the left.
| MARCH 1 SEED LIST RANKINGS | 1-68 | |||
| 1. KENTUCKY | 2. VIRGINIA | 3. Duke | 4. VILLANOVA |
| 5. WISCONSIN | 6. ARIZONA | 7. GONZAGA | 8. KANSAS |
| 9. Maryland | 10. Oklahoma | 11. Baylor | 12. Notre Dame |
| 13. Louisville | 14. Iowa State | 15. Arkansas | 16. Utah |
| 17. WICHITA ST | 18. North Carolina | 19. Northern Iowa | 20. West Virginia |
| 21. Butler | 22. SMU | 23. Providence | 24. Georgetown |
| 25. St. John’s | 26. Indiana | 27. Michigan State | 28. Iowa |
| 29. Ohio State | 30. VCU | 31. SAN DIEGO ST | 32. Dayton |
| 33. Purdue | 34. Georgia | 35. Xavier | 36. LSU |
| 37. Cincinnati | 38. Oklahoma State | 39. NC State | 40. Mississippi |
| 41. Colorado State | 42. Oregon | 43. Texas AM | 44. Boise State |
| 45. BYU | 46. Tulsa | 47. Davidson | 48. WOFFORD |
| 49. MURRAY STATE | 50. S.F. AUSTIN | ||
| 51. LOUISIANA TECH | 52. VALPARIASO | 53. IONA | 54. HARVARD |
| 55. TOLEDO | 56. NC-CENTRAL | 57. HIGH POINT | 58. UC-DAVIS |
| 59. GEORGIA STATE | 60. SO DAKOTA ST | 61. NEW MEXICO ST | 62. ALBANY |
| 63. NORTHEASTERN | 64. SACRAMENTO ST | 65. NORTH FLORIDA | 66. BUCKNELL |
| 67. ST. FRANCIS (NY) | 68. TX-SOUTHERN | ||
This is where the FIRST OUT at-large teams begin. While Illinois (in this case) isn’t rated lower than Texas-Southern, automatic qualifiers have to be ranked within the Field of 68. That’s why I’ve compiled the seed list this way. Other sites choose to compile the list differently. Either way is fine. To me, it’s just easier to see the clear break from which teams are IN and which are close but in the next tier.
| SEED LIST RANKINGS | 69 – 82 | |||
| 69. Illinois | 70. Temple | 71. Stanford | 72. Pittsburgh |
| 73. Old Dominion | 74. UCLA | 75. Miami-FL | 76. Texas |
| 77. Rhode Island | 78. Massachusetts | 79. Connecticut | 80. Kansas State |
| 81. Richmond | 82. Saint Mary’s | ||
Hopefully, you enjoy this new addition to Bracketville. Thanks for you continued interest. Please share your thoughts. That’s a huge part of the fun as we work toward Selection Sunday.
Where is Stanford?
Should have been on the list. Will be corrected shortly.
nice.. lsu
I think you should bold your auto bids instead of using all caps this way teams like VCU, SMU, BYU, UCLA, ect are differentiated.
Michigan State seems high on the seed list considering they have only 2 top 100 RPI wins and only 1 top 50 RPI win. A team with only 2 top 100 RPI wins usually never makes the field at all.
Now Michigan State has 4 top 100 wins as Penn State has moved to 100 on the RPI with today’s action. Either way not a big win.
I can’t see how Purdue a team that lost to both Gardner-Webb and North Florida at home and is only 14-8 can be in the field at this point. I know it’s a weak bubble (shocker I know) but not yet that weak. They play Ohio State at home Wednesday a huge game for both teams.
Your 1 of very few that has Purdue in the field most don’t even have Purdue in the first four out. Those early bad losses coming back to haunt them.
Good to hear from you. Boilers are certainly bubbly. But here’s the thing; a bad two-week stretch in December is what’s really killing Purdue (and it’s part of their resume for sure). There’s a lot of decent work on other side of ledger – given current bubble. As a side note, ESPN’s BPI Index would have Boilers “IN” today – Feb. 14. KenPom has that just two spots behind IU and one ahead of Illinois (Feb. 14). Work left to do for sure.
Your seed list still says Feb 11th on top and how does Ohio State lose to Michigan State and move up from 23 to 22 ? You have Ohio State much higher then most people. On another site I follow closely at Hoops HD they have Ohio State as a 9 seed. I argued with them they should be a 6 or 7 seed but after the Michigan State loss I have given up they just can’t get a quality road win.
Henry .. fixed the date; in the haste to get everything uploaded this morning, I missed it. Thanks. As to Ohio State, keep in mind two things: nothing happens in a vacuum (it’s not just what Ohio State does or doesn’t do). Second, which team moves up? Right now, there wasn’t a team behind them that’s earned a move up – and losing at Michigan State isn’t a bad loss by any means. Ultimately, OSU will have to win a valuable road game to stay in the top half of the bracket. But given the mediocrity of resumes from even 7-seeds down, other factors such as the eye test, etc. were a factor. And most of their road losses in tough venues have been close. Purely on profile, OSU is an 8/9 seed candidate, but so is Georgetown (IMO) and SMU, and maybe West Virginia, and San Diego State, and well, you get the idea. Thirdly, I don’t worry too much about where other people rank teams; I have an idea of overall landscape. I’ve been doing this too long to base what I do on others. Various opinions are great, make for fun debate. We’ll get more accurate next month, but there’s always a couple of teams that the Committee views differently; that’s the way it is.