2021 CSJ Sagarin NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Projections-Mar. 7

The CSJ’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament using the Sagarin rankings to field of the 68 teams that make-up the tournament are currently projecting Gonzaga as the overall number one seed for the week ending March 7th, 2021.

Another High Major team in Houston is also projected as the second #2 seed.

A total of eight High Major and 19 Mid-Major teams are projected to make the Field of 68 teams in this projection.

Four schools have already qualified for the tournament with tournament wins over this past weekend. The following are these automatic qualifiers:

  • Atlantic Sun: Liberty
  • Big South: Winthrop
  • Ohio Valley: Morehead State
  • Missouri Valley: Loyola Chicago

Other conferences have started their tournaments and others will start and finish theirs before the final selections next Sunday, March 14th. With some of the leagues starting, there have been some schools eliminated already and the highest remaining Sagarin ranked team is listed as the projected champion for those leagues.

We use the Sagarin rankings to select our Top 25 teams currently for our Mid-Major poll and High Major poll.

We will be giving a projection for the Field of 68 schools each week following the release of each Top 25 polls until the actual selection of field on March 14th.  As actual tournament champions are crowned, these will also be placed into the projections.

Automatic Qualifiers

The following are the 32 projected Division I conference champions. The ones highlighted in YELLOW are what we categorize as Mid-Major conferences. The ones highlighted in GREEN are ones we categorize as High-Major conferences. And the ones highlighted in BLUE are ones we categorize as Major conferences.

Click on the graphic for a larger view.

Field of 68

The following are the 68 teams based on the Sagarin rankings and using the 31 automatic qualifiers (one less without the Ivy League participating this year) and the 37 at-large qualifiers. Note just as above, the teams highlighted in YELLOW are ones from Mid-Major conferences, in GREEN are High Major conferences, and in BLUE are from Major conferences.

Click on the graphic for a larger view.

Each of the seeds are highlighted for the four regions with the exception of the #12 and #16 seeds, which have more teams as those are the seeds in these projections that would play in the First Four games.  The eight First Four teams are highlighted on the left in ORANGE and in italics.  These teams are the last four at-large teams and the last four automatic qualifying teams.

All the Mid-Major conferences are projecting just the conference champions as qualifiers and no at-large selections.

The High Major conferences, however, have two leagues with two selections in the, American Athletic and the West Coast Conference. The AAC has Houston and Memphis, while the WCC also has two selections in Gonzaga and BYU.

The first eight out has five High Major teams just out. Utah State and Boise State out of the Mountain West. SMU from the AAC is also part of the first eight out, as is the Atlantic 10’s VCU and Saint Louis.

The top ten seeded High Major and Mid-Major schools are as follows:

#1 seed -- Gonzaga (High) (2nd overall)
#2 seed -- Houston (High)
#6 seed -- San Diego State (High)
#6 seed -- BYU (High)
#10 seed -- Loyola-Chicago (High)
#11 seed -- Memphis (High)
#12 seed -- St. Bonaventure (High)
#12 seed -- Toledo (Mid)
#12 seed -- Colgate (Mid) 
#13 seed -- Western Kentucky (High)