Bracketology 2023: 10 storylines to watch on Selection Sunday

7. Who will the 2-seeds be?

If we assume that Alabama, Houston, Kansas, and Purdue nab the 1-seeds, then this question get simpler, but perhaps not as easy as it seems. We’ve already surmised that Texas, Arizona, and UCLA all deserve 2-seeds at the very least, but who would earn that fourth bid? This is one of the most important questions that the Committee has to answer.

Marquette just won the Big East Tournament and has been fantastic all season long, while Gonzaga took care of business in the WCC and has really good metrics, even after a slow start to the season. There’s also a Baylor squad that has racked up impressive wins in the Big 12, but do you punish them for a blowout loss to Marquette or for their poor performance in the conference tournament? Again, this is a question for the Committee, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

8. How many bids will the Big Ten get?

One of the stories in recent years has been the poor postseason play of the Big Ten. No team from the conference has won the national championship since Michigan State’s title way back in 2000. No team from the league made it past the Sweet Sixteen last year, with multiple teams upset by double-digit seeds in the process. This year, the league has been a sheer mess of teams in the middle behind Purdue, but how many of those teams are making the NCAA Tournament?

While the bubble looks less fluid than a few weeks ago, we still don’t know exactly how things will play out with the Committee. Michigan and Wisconsin certainly look out of the field based on their poor finishes to the season, but could the Committee shock the world? Purdue will likely be a top-seed, while Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois, and Iowa should all be in the field safely. Penn State and Rutgers should be safe on the bubble but you never really know until we see their names on the big screen.