Men’s Bracketology 1/10/2026

I seriously considered moving Vanderbilt to the 1 line in this update- I do truly feel that we have 5 1-seed quality resumes at this point in the season. Ultimately we still have 4 undefeated power conference teams and 1 extremely impressive 1-loss resume (Connecticut). I could see UConn getting passed up in a few weeks though, simply because they don’t have as many quality win opportunities in the Big East as say, Iowa State and Vanderbilt might.

On the bubble, I’ve dropped Kentucky from the field. I thought other bracketologists were a bit rash for doing this a few weeks ago- the Wildcats’ predictive metrics were still in the 20s. However, after a disastrous home loss to Mizzou, their predictives are now in the mid-30s and their resume metrics are in the 60s. T-Rank has them projected for 16-15, which definitely wouldn’t get the job done.

1: Michigan, Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa State

2: Vanderbilt, Purdue, Gonzaga, Duke

3: Houston, Michigan State, Illinois, Nebraska

4: Alabama, BYU, Kansas, Arkansas

5: Texas Tech, Louisville, Tennessee, Virginia

6: Clemson, North Carolina, Florida, St. Mary’s

7: SMU, Utah State, Villanova, Iowa

8: Saint Louis, Indiana, Miami (FL), Georgia

9: UCF, Seton Hall, USC, St. John’s

10: Ohio State, Texas A&M, Auburn, Missouri

11: NC State, (New Mexico/TCU), (LSU/Stanford), Miami (OH)

12: Belmont, Yale, McNeese, Tulsa

13: High Point, Utah Valley, Hofstra, Hawai’i

14: Liberty, East Tennessee State, Troy, Oakland

15: Lipscomb, St. Thomas, Montana State, Quinnipiac

16: Colgate, Vermont, (LIU/UT-Martin), (Grambling/Howard)

First Four Out: Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, UCLA

Next Four Out: San Diego State, Creighton, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech

Moving In: Missouri, New Mexico, Stanford

Moving Out: Kentucky, UCLA, Baylor