Selection Sunday is nearly here, as the 68-team bracket for the 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament will be announced on March 15, beginning at 6 p.m. EST and airing on CBS.
As conference tournaments continue on Saturday and into Sunday afternoon, teams are jockeying for higher seeds in the Big Dance. Numerous bubble squads, meanwhile, will anxiously await whether their names are called on Selection Sunday.
Here are five key storylines before the bracket is revealed.
Top seeds and No. 1 overall seed
Three teams have locked up No. 1 seeds in March Madness. They are Duke, Arizona and Michigan. Those are also the three squads in play for the No. 1 overall seed, with the Blue Devils the likely front-runner. The fourth No. 1 seed is expected to come down to three contenders: Florida, UConn and Houston. The Gators have the edge here.
Miami (Ohio): In or out?
Ahhh, the great Miami (Ohio) debate. The RedHawks finished the 2025-26 regular season at a perfect 31-0. However, in its first game at the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament, No. 1 seed Miami (Ohio) was upset by UMass. The RedHawks are just No. 64 in the NCAA NET rankings, and they haven’t played a quadrant-one opponent. They are forecast as a No. 11 seed, per the Bracket Matrix. Are the RedHawks one of the best at-large teams out there? Probably not. Are they deserving of a bid? Absolutely.
Which conference will reign supreme?
Last spring, the Southeastern Conference set a record when 14 of its 16 members heard their name called on Selection Sunday. In 2026, the SEC may have the edge, for the time being, in terms of getting the most invites to the upcoming NCAA Tournament. But right on the SEC’s heels are the other power-conference leagues: the Big Ten Conference, the much-improved Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12 Conference.
These bubble teams are likely toast
National analysts say that the cut line for bubble squads is relatively weak for this spring’s field of 68. Some of those schools that have most likely seen their bubble burst include Oklahoma, Auburn, Indiana, New Mexico, California, Stanford and Virginia Tech. Sorry. There’s always next year.
Bid stealers potentially on Sunday
Several leagues will hold the championship contests of their conference tournaments on Sunday. Might we see a bid thief or two? Title games to monitor on Sunday include the Ivy League Tournament, the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament and the American Conference Tournament.