By Max Goren
The blessed day has finally come for college basketball fans: yesterday was Selection Sunday, and we have the 68-team field for the 2026 NCAA Tournament. What are the biggest takeaways from the bracket reveal as the anticipation for the first round of action builds over the next three days?
Conference tournaments mattered…until they didn’t
The selection committee has shown in past years that they don’t necessarily always account for results in the final weekend of conference tournament play when seeding the field. For example, last year, Michigan defeated Wisconsin in the B1G title game, only to be seeded as a five, whereas most projections had the Wolverines 1-2 spots better.
This time around, Purdue was rewarded for its run to a B1G title with the final two seed. The committee really valued conference championships then, right? Well, not necessarily.
Vanderbilt made a run to the SEC title game in Nashville, where they were defeated by Arkansas. The Commodores were a three seed in my projections, ranking 8th in resume metrics and 12th in quality, but ultimately earned a five seed from the committee. The Red Storm of St. John’s were also put on the five line, despite ranking 12th in resume average and 15th in quality average, and defeating UConn to win the Big East title on Saturday night. Moral of the story? Your performance in conference tournaments matters…sometimes.
The first slate of first-round games should be absolutely electric
After the bracket was revealed, fans waited with bated breath for the tip times to be released. Roughly two hours after the bracket was revealed, we got the schedule for the first round, and it starts off with a bang. The first slate of games on Thursday afternoon is TCU-Ohio State, Troy-Nebraska, South Florida-Louisville and High Point-Wisconsin. That’s a tight 8-9 game, a frisky 13 seed against a team looking for its first ever win in the big dance, a high-octane mid-major against a banged-up high-major, and a matchup of two electric offenses. The first slate of games is, in my opinion, the best by far- hopefully the rest of Thursday and Friday can deliver.
Who’s on upset alert?
Last year’s first and second rounds didn’t feature a ton of madness. Five double-digit seeds won first round games, and only one of those teams (Arkansas) went on to win a second game. There is hope for more 12+ seed upsets in 2026, but where will they come from?
I’ve already mentioned High Point- they average 90 points per game, and their Thursday afternoon tilt with Wisconsin should be a shootout. Some other double-digit seeds to keep an eye on are Northern Iowa (best scoring defense in the nation), Troy (3-1 against Q1/Q2 competition this season), and Hofstra (one loss since the start of February, road wins at Pitt and Syracuse).