In the SEC, they say "It just means more." And for the 2025 men's NCAA tournament, the SEC might end up with more bids than any conference has ever received.

The current record is 11, set by the formerly 16-team Big East back in 2011. With nonconference play nearing its conclusion, though, South Carolina is the only squad from the 16-team SEC that isn't under serious consideration for a bid.

In addition to boasting three of the four projected No. 1 seeds, the SEC has 12 teams in our current field, as well as the first and second teams on the outside looking in—plus Vanderbilt somewhere in the "6th-10th team out" range as the league's 15th-best resume.

We'll see how the next three months shake out, but a dozen SEC teams seems quite possible, particularly as both the ACC and Big East struggle to put a fifth viable candidate on the board.

At this point in the season, predictive (or QUAL) metrics (NET, KenPom, Torvik and BPI) still carry more weight on the team sheets than the resume (or RES) metrics (SOR, KPI and WAB) do, but all seven of those metrics—as well as quadrant-based records and strength of schedule—factor into the seeding process.

The projected auto bids from each of the 31 conferences will eventually be based entirely on conference record. Conference play hasn't begun yet for most leagues, though, so we're simply rolling with the highest-rated team in the predictive metrics as each league's projected champ.

With that out of the way, let's start with the full bracket before some brief commentary on the current state of the bubble and the top seed line. Following that, we have a full conference-by-conference rundown, highlighting some of the biggest changes from one week ago.

The Projected Bracket

EAST REGION (Newark)

Milwaukee, WI
1. Iowa State vs. 16. Southern / Little Rock
8. Saint Mary's vs. 9. Ole Miss

Providence, RI
4. Michigan vs. 13. Furman
5. Texas A&M vs. 12. Liberty

Raleigh, NC
3. Alabama vs. 14. High Point
6. Wisconsin vs. 11. Creighton / Rhode Island

Raleigh, NC
2. Duke vs. 15. UMass Lowell
7. Connecticut vs. 10. Ohio State

MIDWEST REGION (Indianapolis)

Lexington, KY
1. Tennessee vs. 16. Montana State
8. Memphis vs. 9. Maryland

Denver, CO
4. UCLA vs. 13. Arkansas State
5. Illinois vs. 12. LSU / Loyola Chicago

Milwaukee, WI
3. Clemson vs. 14. Lipscomb
6. Oklahoma vs. 11. San Diego State

Cleveland, OH
2. Marquette vs. 15. Yale
7. Cincinnati vs. 10. North Carolina

SOUTH REGION (Atlanta)

Lexington, KY
1. Auburn vs. 16. American / Saint Peter's
8. Baylor vs. 9. Texas

Seattle, WA
4. Michigan State vs. 13. McNeese
5. Oregon vs. 12. Grand Canyon

Providence, RI
3. Florida vs. 14. Charleston
6. St. John's vs. 11. Dayton

Wichita, KS
2. Kansas vs. 15. Norfolk State
7. Pittsburgh vs. 10. Drake

WEST REGION (San Francisco)

Cleveland, OH
1. Kentucky vs. 16. Central Connecticut
8. Penn State vs. 9. Arizona State

Denver, CO
4. Houston vs. 13. Kent State
5. Purdue vs. 12. UC Irvine

Wichita, KS
3. Mississippi State vs. 14. South Dakota State
6. Utah State vs. 11. West Virginia

Seattle, WA
2. Gonzaga vs. 15. Fort Wayne
7. Texas Tech vs. 10. Georgia

Bracketing principles note:

With both the Big Ten and SEC projected for more than eight teams each, it's worth pointing out this note from the NCAA's bracketing principles and procedures:

"Teams from the same conference may play each other as early as the second round if they played no more than once during the regular season and conference tournament."

Ideally, this wouldn't happen, but there may be some spots in which it is simply unavoidable.

In this particular projection, we have five SEC teams in the 1/8/9/16 seeds grouping, as well as six Big Ten teams in the 4/5/12/13 tier. As a result, we have a possible UCLA-Illinois second-round game, a possible Michigan State-Oregon second-round game and a possible Auburn-Texas second-round game. Each of those matchups is scheduled just once during the regular season, so those would be permissible.

Ranking the No. 1 Seeds

1. Auburn Tigers (8-1, NET: 2, RES: 1.3, QUAL: 2.7)

2. Tennessee Volunteers (8-0, NET: 1, RES: 8.3, QUAL: 2.7)

3. Iowa State Cyclones (7-1, NET: 9, RES: 14.0, QUAL: 7.0)

4. Kentucky Wildcats (8-1, NET: 5, RES: 8.7, QUAL: 8.7)

5. Duke Blue Devils (7-2, NET: 4, RES: 15.3, QUAL: 2.7)

6. Marquette Golden Eagles (9-1, NET: 6, RES: 3.7, QUAL: 11.3)

Despite the recent loss at Duke, Auburn remains the No. 1 overall seed.

Heading into the week, there was a massive gap between Auburn/Kansas in the top two spots and everyone else jostling for the top line, and a single Quad 1A loss didn't do anything to hurt the Tigers' resume—especially considering they are 2-1 vs. Q1A and 4-1 vs. Q1 compared to Tennessee at 0-0 and 2-0, respectively.

That said, quite the SEC battle brewing for seeding supremacy.

Tennessee is a strong No. 2 overall seed, undefeated with nothing but blowout wins for more than a month, including quality victories over Baylor and Louisville away from home. The Volunteers might be the most complete team in the nation—though it's going to take some time to accept the notion that maybe the biggest threat to win it all is the program that notoriously has never even made a Final Four.

Kentucky makes it three SEC teams on the top line. The Wildcats suffered a close loss at Clemson before an overtime win over Gonzaga (in Seattle) to pretty much break even for the week. They would have remained at No. 5 overall for a second consecutive projection if Kansas hadn't suffered back-to-back losses to Creighton and Missouri to at least temporarily freefall out of the mix.

Lastly, Iowa State picked up a quality win over Marquette this past week, pushing ahead of the Golden Eagles and up to No. 3 overall. The Cyclones' lone loss was the game against No. 1 overall Auburn in Maui, decided basically at the buzzer. They bounced back from that one to beat Dayton before destroying Colorado, and seem to have emerged as the team to beat in the Big 12. They have a rivalry game on the road against Iowa this coming Thursday, but should be able to win it.

Duke is close to a No. 1 seed after the aforementioned win over Auburn and an 11-point victory at Louisville, but the head-to-head loss to Kentucky is more than enough to create a bit of separation between those blue bloods, at least for now.

The Blue Devils aren't expected to face many challenges the rest of the way, though. KenPom has them as the projected favorite in every remaining contest, only four of which have a win probability below 80 percent. This makes it pretty likely that Duke will eventually supplant one of the SEC teams for a No. 1 seed, but it narrowly misses the cut for now.

10 Words on Each of the 10 'Bubbliest' Teams

Fifth-to-Last In: West Virginia Mountaineers (6-2)—Should linger in this vicinity until Big 12 play begins.

Fourth-to-Last In: Creighton Bluejays (7-3)—Back in the mix after a big win over Kansas.

Third-to-Last In: LSU Tigers (8-1)—Scored a 10-point win over Florida State in bubble battle.

Second-to-Last In: Rhode Island Rams (9-0)—One of eight remaining unbeatens makes A-10 a three-bid league.

Last Team In: Loyola Chicago Ramblers (8-0)—One of eight remaining unbeatens makes A-10 a three-bid league.

****CUT LINE****

First Team Out: Missouri Tigers (8-1)—Just missed the cut after a big win over Kansas.

Second Team Out: Arkansas Razorbacks (7-2)—Respectable metrics, but nary a Q1 or Q2 victory yet.

Third Team Out: Iowa Hawkeyes (7-2)—Split two nail-biters to open league play; Iowa State awaits.

Fourth Team Out: SMU Mustangs (8-2)—On principle alone, we must consider a fifth ACC team.

Fifth Team Out: Washington State Cougars (8-2)—Can't argue with consecutive road wins over Nevada, Boise State.

ACC Summary

4 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 5. Duke; 11. Clemson; 28. Pittsburgh; 37. North Carolina

Also Considered: SMU, Louisville

Biggest Change: Clemson surges; UNC's tumble continues

Sure, most of the Clemson sports focus is on the football team securing its spot in the College Football Playoff via the dramatic victory over SMU in the ACC championship. But the men's basketball team had itself one heck of a week, too.

The highest profile outcome was the victory over Kentucky in the ACC-SEC Challenge—one of just two wins the ACC got in 16 tries. Ian Schieffelin had a tough night from the field (4-for-20 with 11 points), but the Chef was otherwise cooking to the tune of 20 rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile, the defense clamped down on a very good Wildcats offense, holding them to what may well end up being a season low of 66 points.

Clemson proceeded to win its ACC opener at Miami by 10 points, and received a nice little boost from Penn State's rout of Purdue, turning the Tigers' previous neutral-court victory over the Nittany Lions into a Quad 1A result. As of Sunday morning, Clemson was one of only six teams in the nation with multiple Quad 1A wins, the others all presently in the top nine spots on the overall seed list.

The Tigers were slotted as a No. 9 seed one week ago, but they absolutely skyrocketed all the way up to a No. 3 seed. Their overall jump of 24 spots on the seed list was easily the largest of the week.

On the flip side of that coin, though, North Carolina plummeted from our bottom No. 5 seed to our top No. 10 seed, following a blowout home loss to Alabama and the subsequent ACC opener in which the Tar Heels barely survived at home against Georgia Tech.

All four of UNC's losses were Quad 1A games, so we're still giving this team some benefit of the doubt here. They have a critical two-game stretch next week, though, facing Florida (in Charlotte) and UCLA (in NYC). The Heels don't necessarily need to win both of those games, but if they don't at least manage to get a split, their path to a tournament bid will be very tough.

Big 12 Summary

8 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 3. Iowa State; 8. Kansas; 13. Houston; 26. Texas Tech; 27. Cincinnati; 31. Baylor; 34. Arizona State; 43. West Virginia

Also Considered: Arizona, BYU, UCF

Biggest Change: Bye Bye, BYU

One week ago, after an MTE in which BYU took an overtime loss to Ole Miss before bouncing back for an 11-point win over NC State, we left the Cougars in the exact same spot from the prior week's projection, No. 24 overall.

However, at 6-1 with five of those wins coming at home against teams with no at-large potential whatsoever and mostly meaningless games left on their nonconference slate, this past week's game at Providence loomed large for the Cougars.

A win over the team that went winless in the Battle 4 Atlantis wasn't going to do much of anything to help BYU's resume, but a loss—even at the always-tough-for-visiting-teams venue formerly known as The Dunk—could do some damage.

The 19-point loss really hurt.

BYU grabbed 21 offensive rebounds to Providence's two and only committed five turnovers, but the Cougars just could not buy a bucket while the Friars seemingly couldn't miss. And now they're going to enter Big 12 play with two losses that figure to oscillate between Q1 and Q2 throughout the season, a semi-decent neutral win over NC State and nothing else better than a home win over UC Riverside on their resume.

They do at least only have one game each against Iowa State, Kansas, Houston, Texas Tech and Baylor, so an 11-9 or better record in Big 12 play is feasible. Nevertheless, getting smoked by the Friars turned their path to the dance into a much more uphill climb.

Big East Summary

4 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 6. Marquette; 21. St. John's; 25. Connecticut; 44. Creighton

Also Considered: Villanova

Biggest Change: Creighton returns, Xavier vanishes

Xavier probably should have gotten the boot a week ago after following up a 25-point loss to Michigan with a three-point home victory over South Carolina State. But the Musketeers had just the one loss and respectable wins over Wake Forest and South Carolina, so we let them hang around to see if they could turn things around with a win over TCU in the Big East-Big 12 Challenge.

They didn't.

It was close, but the X-Men lost by four to the Horned Frogs and are now outside the top 60 in all seven metrics on the team sheets.

The land of opportunity awaits them with at Cincinnati, at Connecticut and vs. Marquette coming up in the next two weeks. But Xavier now needs to play its way back into the conversation as opposed to maintaining a spot in the field.

At least Creighton rallied, though, with both a statement win over Kansas and an 18-point victory over UNLV.

As has typically been the case for more than a decade, the Bluejays committed basically no fouls (seven in the former, eight in the latter) and shot it quite well in those home games, going a combined 22-for-49 from three-point range. They were minus-19 in turnover margin between the two games, but it didn't much matter.

They have another gigantic test coming up this weekend at Alabama. Lose that one to drop to 7-4 and the Bluejays maybe drop right back out of the projected field, even in spite of the quality win over Kansas. Win it, though, and Creighton would be make a major leap in next week's projection.

Big Ten Summary

10 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 14. Michigan; 15. UCLA; 16. Michigan State; 17. Purdue; 18. Oregon; 20. Illinois; 24. Wisconsin; 30. Penn State; 33. Maryland; 38. Ohio State

Also Considered: Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Indiana

Biggest Change: Start of league play shuffles the deck

As anticipated before the season began, the Big Ten is a great big jumbled mess of "not elite, but better than average."

There are presently 14 Big Ten teams entered play on Sunday ranked in the top 61 on KenPom, but with Purdue leading the charge at No. 12.

There was a whole lot of rearranging within that Big Ten jumble, though, thanks to a number of key results in the first week of conference games.

Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue were our three highest-seeded Big Ten teams one week ago, but they each opened league play with a loss, to Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State, respectively.

At least the Wisconsin and Illinois results were nail-biters. Purdue got stomped by Penn State, making the Nittany Lions one of the biggest risers of the week. Their up-tempo, turnover-forcing approach is already wreaking 'havoc,' forcing 24 Boilermakers turnovers in what was a 27-point game midway through the second half.

Penn State was picked to finish 17th in the preseason but might be legitimately good.

(Purdue did bounce back for a respectable home win over Maryland on Sunday, keeping the Boilermakers from slipping much on the overall seed list.)

One other noteworthy result: In its first game after a solid showing in the Players Era Festival, Rutgers lost by 14 at Ohio State. At 5-4 with a bad loss to Kennesaw State and nary a metric that believes in them, it's looking likely that Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey and the Scarlet Knights won't be a part of March Madness.

SEC Summary

12 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 1. Auburn; 2. Tennessee; 4. Kentucky; 9. Alabama; 10. Florida; 12. Mississippi State; 19. Texas A&M; 23. Oklahoma; 35. Texas; 36. Ole Miss; 40. Georgia; 45. LSU

Also Considered: Arkansas, Missouri, Vanderbilt

Biggest Change: Made a mockery of the SEC/ACC Challenge

We already knew the SEC was collectively much better than the ACC this season, but going 14-2 in the two-night showdown between the two conferences was even more impressive than anyone could have guessed.

Even the two teams that lost have nothing to be ashamed about. Auburn narrowly lost a true road game against Duke, dropping to 4-1 in Quad 1 games. And after its four-point loss at Clemson, Kentucky flew out to Seattle, rallied from what was an 18-point deficit early in the second half and stole an overtime victory from Gonzaga, even without starting point guard Lamont Butler.

In spite of the losses, Auburn remains our No. 1 overall seed, and Kentucky actually scooched up a spot from No. 5 to No. 4 overall, thanks to losses around them. Basically, though, no change for either team.

Two SEC teams who did move, though, were Mississippi State and Oklahoma: the former for eviscerating Pittsburgh; the latter because of effortless wins over Georgia Tech and Alcorn State and because we're showing a little extra love this week to anyone who is still undefeated.

And welcome to the party, LSU. The Tigers improved to 8-1 with wins over Florida State and Florida Gulf Coast, further enhancing a resume that already featured a road win over Kansas State and a neutral victory over UCF. None of the predictive metrics have particularly bought in on LSU yet, but it's a strong enough overall resume to sneak into the projected field.

That brings the SEC to 12 teams, and both Arkansas and Missouri are right on the cusp of making this a preposterous 14-bid league.

Had we not made it a point to get undefeated Rhode Island and Loyola-Chicago into the mix, both SEC teams would have made the cut, with Missouri becoming a mighty fine candidate after its win over Kansas on Sunday.

Mid-Majors Summary (AAC, A-10, MVC, MWC, WCC)

9 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 7. Gonzaga; 22. Utah State; 29. Saint Mary's; 32. Memphis; 39. Drake; 41. Dayton; 42. San Diego State; 46. Rhode Island; 47. Loyola Chicago

Also Considered: San Francisco, VCU, Washington State, Bradley

Biggest Change: Memphis, baby, what is you doing?

Memphis was poised to climb up to a No. 4 seed, maybe even a No. 3 seed, so long as it took care of business at home against Arkansas State on Sunday.

Save for PJ Haggerty and Dain Dainja, though, the Tigers no-showed that game, trailing by double digits less than 10 minutes in and never recovering en route to an 85-72 loss.

To be fair, it wasn't some atrociously unforgivable outcome like a loss to Central Arkansas or Arkansas Pine Bluff would have been. Arkansas State is basically neck and neck with Wake Forest, Virginia and Minnesota just outside the top 100 on KenPom and put up a solid fight a month ago at Alabama.

It definitely wasn't a good outcome for Memphis, though, and it puts considerably more pressure on the Tigers to do some damage against a remaining nonconference schedule that is no joke: at Clemson, at Virginia, vs. Mississippi State, vs. Ole Miss.

Not much at-large potential to be found in the AAC aside from Memphis, so those legitimately might be the four biggest games left on the schedule prior to the conference tournament.

The Tigers are still a far cry from the cut line. One bad loss doesn't undo the wins over Connecticut and Michigan State in Maui, nor the solid neutral-site victory over San Francisco or the come-from-behind win over Missouri on opening night—presently the only loss those Tigers have suffered.

It did do some damage, though, dropping Memphis several seed lines in advance of that tough final stretch of nonconference play.

The Other 21 Leagues Summary

21 Teams in the Projected Field (by Overall Seed): 48. UC Irvine; 49. Liberty; 50. Grand Canyon; 51. Furman; 52. Arkansas State; 53. McNeese; 54. Kent State; 55. High Point; 56. Lipscomb; 57. Charleston; 58. South Dakota State; 59. Yale; 60. UMass Lowell; 61. Norfolk State; 62. Fort Wayne; 63. Montana State; 64. Central Connecticut; 65. Southern; 66. Little Rock; 67. American; 68. Saint Peter's

Also Considered: N/A

Biggest Change: Furman rallies from blowout loss to Kansas

Pretty quiet week on the low-majors front, with just a few in/out changes along the No. 16 seed line.

Let's shout out Furman, though, which had a solid bounce-back week to remain the team to beat in what figures to be a very competitive top half of the SoCon.

The Paladins got pummeled two weekends ago in a battle of then-undefeateds at Kansas, outscored 59-25 over the final 26 minutes of that one.

Their next game, they trailed by 13 midway through the second half at Florida Gulf Coast but rallied for a solid road win.

Three days later, Furman was down seven midway through the second half at home against Princeton, before storming back for a six-point victory over a Tigers team that should be better than it has been thus far.

Furman is now 9-1 and does not play another game against a team presently ranked in the KenPom top 100.

Even if the Paladins were to win every single game between now and the SoCon championship, getting into the at-large conversation is going to be a challenge. But two years removed from pulling off that memorable 13-over-4 upset of Virginia, consider this your warning that they could do it again if PJay Smith is having himself a day.