Bracketology 2025: Gonzaga, UCF, Purdue and Wisconsin among season's early winners

Kansas Jayhawks - 4-0

As the preseason No. 1 team, expectations are high for Kansas to be a contender for a No. 1 seed come March. They’re off to a great start, getting wins over both North Carolina and Michigan State. The Tar Heels should be a top-30 team via the NET and as long as the Spartans don’t crater outside the top 50, these should be a pair of Quad 1 wins for the Jayhawks.

There are still multiple opportunities for Kansas to add to its Quad 1 win count, with future non-con matchups with Duke, Creighton, NC State, and Missouri. With the Big 12 having plenty of opportunities as well, Kansas is well on its way to having one of the top overall resumes entering Selection Sunday.

UCF Knights - 3-0

The Knights have one of the more interesting rosters in the Big 12 but it was unknown how good they’ll be. The season-opening 64-61 home win over Texas A&M provided some answers, giving them a quality victory out of the gate. They got an underrated win over Florida Atlantic in the past week, scoring 100 points in the impressive outing.

UCF’s remaining non-con schedule is fairly light, so their goal is to avoid a bad loss before Big 12 play. The big games to watch are in the Greenbrier MTE, where they’ll take on Wisconsin and either LSU or Pittsburgh, all of whom had impressive starts to the season.