Men’s Bracketology: 2025 NCAA Tournament
By Joe Lunardi Updated: 9/24/2024 at 10:20 a.m. ET
The countdown to opening night on Nov. 4 has ticked under six weeks. The Bracketology schedule picks up accordingly, as we monitor news and practice reports from around the nation to keep you up to date through the new-look exhibition schedule and earlier-than-ever start of the regular season.
Bracket Watch
By the time the 2025 national champion is determined, it will have been a quarter-century since a Big Ten team won the NCAA title. It is one of those hard-to-believe streaks that’s even crazier when you consider the conference has placed a best-in-the-nation 144 teams in the NCAA tournament since Michigan State hoisted the league’s last trophy in 2000. Twenty-five years later, opportunity is once again knocking for the Big Ten. Not only are nine league members listed in our latest bracket, but every one of the First Four Out group — Nebraska, Maryland, Wisconsin and USC — are Big Ten members. Conference realignment and expansion are a part of that, for sure, but the Big Ten has never lacked for its quantity of contenders. Quality at times is another matter, and it could be again this year as the top Big Ten team on our seed list — Purdue — is only a No. 4. In the meantime, the Big East record of 11 tournament bids (2011) is very much in jeopardy. And the Big Ten is the most likely conference to break it, national championship or not.
On the Bubble
68-Team Bracket
MIDWEST (INDIANAPOLIS)
Wichita
Cleveland
Denver
Lexington
EAST (NEWARK)
Raleigh
Cleveland
Milwaukee
Providence
WEST (SAN FRANCISCO)
Wichita
Seattle
Denver
Seattle
SOUTH (ATLANTA)
Lexington
Providence
Raleigh
Milwaukee
Conference Breakdown
Photo illo by ESPN Illustration, additional photos courtesy of Getty Images, Associated Press, Imagn, USA TODAY Sports, Icon Sportswire, EPA/Shutterstock
