2023 CSJ Sagarin NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Projections-Feb. 26

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 Houston as the overall number two overall seed for the week ending February 26th, 2023.

Another High Major team in Gonzaga is also projected as a #2 seed.

A total of 8 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 12th.  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 three leagues with multiple selections in the American Athletic Conference and West Coast Conference. The AAC has two in Houston and Memphis. The WCC also has two with Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga.

The first eight out has two High Major teams just out. Cincinnati from the AAC and Boise State from the Mountain West are this week’s just out teams.

High Major and Mid-Major schools are as follows as the top 12 seeded schools:

#1 seed -- Houston (High) (1st overall)
#2 seed -- Gonzaga (High)
#4 seed -- Saint Mary's (High)
#7 seed -- San Diego State (High)
#10 seed -- Memphis (High)
#11 seed -- Florida Atlantic (High)
#12 seed -- VCU (High)
#12 seed -- College of Charleston (Mid)
#12 seed -- Drake (High)
#12 seed -- Yale (Mid) 
#13 seed -- Oral Roberts (Mid)
#13 seed -- Kent State (Mid)