2022 CSJ Sagarin NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Projections-Jan. 30

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 30, 2022.

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

A total of 10 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 32 automatic qualifiers (and the 36 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 two leagues with multiple selections in the West Coast Conference and Mountain West Conference. The WCC has three with Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, and BYU. The Mountain West also has three with Colorado State, San Diego State, and Boise State.

The first eight out has four High Major teams just out. SMU and Memphis are is just out from the AAC. The Atlantic 10 also has a near miss in Saint Louis, as does the Mountain West with Utah State.

High Major and Mid-Major schools are as follows:

#1 seed -- Gonzaga (High) (1st overall)
#2 seed -- Houston (High)
#8 seed -- Saint Mary's (High)
#8 seed -- BYU (High)
#10 seed -- Boise State (High)
#10 seed -- Loyola Chicago (High)
#11 seed -- San Diego State (High)
#11 seed -- San Fransicso (High)
#12 seed -- VCU (High) 
#12 seed -- UAB (High)
#12 seed -- Belmont (Mid)