Blogging the Bracket
Blogging the Bracket, College Basketball Bracketology
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A regularly-updated list of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season’s exempt multiple-team events (MTEs). If you have any info to add to this page, please email it to mcbb dot mte dot info at gmail dot com.
As usual, the longer I do this, the worse my picks get. At least year I got the national champ right for the first time in a few years.
Your one-stop shop for 2025 NCAA Division I men’s basketball conference tournament brackets, schedules, TV/streaming info, and final scores.
So, the SEC and Big 12 expanded their tournaments to 16 when they added new members for this season, but the ACC stayed at 15 (and the Big Ten followed). You’re undoubtedly wondering why, but there’s a good answer, really!
After expanding to Tuesday play in 2024, the new opening round in Kansas City will feature four games for the first time. If you’re looking for good basketball, you will be in good shape. If you’re looking for regional rivalries, well, you may need to wait until after the first round. If you’re looking for a court that won’t give you (okay, me) a migraine, you really need to look elsewhere.
The conference’s bid total may rest on Xavier winning the 4 vs. 5 quarterfinal on Thursday or a surprise winner emerging from Wednesday’s first round.
While the conference expanded from 14 to 18, it only expanded the tournament field to 15. I explained why in the ACC Tournament Primer. Michigan came away with the title.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... the Mountain West isn’t relying on a random number generator to come up with a bid total for 2025, but that might be smarter given how wild things can get in Vegas.
The conference will almost assuredly break the 2011 Big East’s record of 11 bids. But what happens in Nashville will determine the margin and whether the SEC can somehow match the 2009 Big East and 2019 ACC’s record of three No. 1 seeds. They conference will probably just get two, however, in regular season champ Auburn and tournament champ Florida.
Memphis, the favorite and the conference’s only true at-large threat, won the title by defeating UAB.
Once again, the question of whether this historically multi-bid league will put one or two teams in the field of 68 will likely be the first option after VCU held off George Mason in the final.
UC San Diego is finally eligible for the NCAAs, and the Tritons took advantage of the opportunity to offered.
After a year with a changed nine-member lineup, CUSA’s membership stands at 10, with Delaware and Missouri State on the way for 2025-26 and UTEP heading to the Mountain West for 2026-27. Once again, the tournament will be in Huntsville and will feature each and every team.
There is a non-zero chance the MAAC champ may be headed to Dayton to play in an auto-bid First Four game for the first time since 2015. That’s familiar ground for Mount St. Mary’s.
Of the eight teams who will make the trip to Cleveland, six of them, including the top four seeds, should get plenty of in-state support.
Norfolk State took down South Carolina State and should avoid Dayton relatively easily.
While the SWAC Tournament has an expanded field and will take place in a new city, expect the winner to need to play in Dayton.
Grand Canyon’s three-peat prevented Utah Valley from making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
Surprise! Vermont wasn’t the No. 1 seed this year. And the Catamounts didn’t even make the final as the 2! The team that did earn the top seed, Bryant, doubled up, and is headed to the field of 68.
Yale repeated, winning at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center. For the third time in four editions since the tournament ended its COVID hiatus in 2022, the host wasn’t involved on the men’s side.
Lipscomb and North Alabama shared the regular-season title, but seeds 3 through 6 all finished within four games of the lead. Plus, four teams managed to defeat one of the co-champs at least once. In the end, the Bisons prevented the Lions from becoming the fourth first-time qualifier in as many 2025 conference tournaments.
Montana State was unable to make it it four titles in a row, as the top two seeds won their semifinals easily to reach the Starch Madness final. In the end, second-seeded Montana topped its fellow co-champ, Northern Colorado.
The High Point Panthers needed a big second half to do it, but they clinched their first ever NCAA trip at the Division I level by knocking off Winthrop in the championship game.
There are plenty of familiar names waiting for Sunday’s quarterfinal round in the Nation’s Capital. One of them indeed made it, as UNCW set a record for CAA Tournament titles.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before ... the Horizon League race was ridiculously competitive, and you should expect that to continue in the postseason. Robert Morris, the top seed, did end up winning its first Horizon title, however.
The top-seeded Drake Bulldogs took their fate out of the Selection Committee’s hands by winning their third straight Arch Madness title.
KenPom’s lowest-rated conference had one shot at avoiding Dayton—Central Connecticut. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils lost at home to Saint Francis, which will make its first NCAA trip since 1991.
For the first time ever, the SIU Edwardsville Cougars are headed to the NCAAs, where they are extremely likely to be a 16 seed and on the way to Dayton.
During Colgate’s reign over the conference, the question was always whether the Raiders could finally pull off an upset in the First Round. In 2025, the chance of a Patriot NCAA win should increase—because the tournament winner will likely be playing in Dayton. That opportunity will go to 2 seed and co-champ American.
While Chattanooga won the regular-season title by two games over UNCG, you couldn’t write off Samford, the preseason favorite, or ETSU, or Wofford, the six seed who won it all.
The McNeese Cowboys repeated in their home arena, though Lamar pushed them for most of the final.
With reclassifying St. Thomas winning the second semifinal, Omaha has clinched its first-ever NCAA bid at the Division I level. The Mavericks then took care of the Tommies to claim the title on Sunday night.
For 2025, the Sun Belt implemented a bracket that is unprecedented, not because of its format, but due to its size. It didn’t quite serve its purpose, as the third-seeded Troy Trojans won, but the top four seeds were all co-champs.
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