2022 CSJ Sagarin NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Projections-Jan. 17

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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 January 17, 2022.

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

A total of 11 High Major and 20 Mid-Major teams are projected to make the Field of 68 teams in this projection.

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 13th. 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 #11 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 three leagues with multiple selections in the West Coast Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the American Athletic Conference. The WCC has three with Gonzaga, BYU, and Saint Mary’s. The Mountain West also has three with Colorado State, San Diego State, and Boise State. The AAC has two selections in Houston and Memphis.

The first eight out has four High Major teams just out. San Francisco is just out from the WCC and SMU is just out from the AAC. The Atlantic 10 has two near misses in Saint Louis and St. Bonaventure.

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

#1 seed -- Gonzaga (High) (1st overall)
#2 seed -- Houston (High)
#7 seed -- BYU (High)
#8 seed -- Colorado State (High)
#8 seed -- Loyola-Chicago (High)
#9 seed -- San Diego State (High)
#10 seed -- Saint Mary's (High)
#11 seed -- Boise State (High) 
#11 seed -- Memphis (High)
#12 seed -- Davidson (High)