2023 NCAA Tournament Projected Field of 64 (5/10/23)

Most teams have just two weeks of play before conference tournaments begin. Time, then, is running short for teams looking to improve their NCAA Tournament resumes.

Still, there is some projection involved with building a Field of 64. This is meant to illustrate what the tournament would look like on Selection Monday, not how it would be seeded if it started tomorrow.

The host line continues to shuffle, as this week Boston College, Clemson and Kentucky join the hosts. BC and Connecticut continue to flip flop in these projections, but the Eagles’ win at Wake Forest last weekend gave them an important ACC win and RPI boost. Clemson and Kentucky both move onto the host line after conference sweeps. The Wildcats rank No. 1 in RPI and they’re locked into a top-eight RPI. With just two more SEC wins, they’ll be locked into hosting, too. Clemson’s surge over the last month has pushed it up the ACC pecking order and into the top 15 in RPI.

Sneakily, Campbell and East Carolina have gotten back into the hosting race. Both teams are now in the top 25 in RPI. Both have work left to do—including a big game against each other next Tuesday—but keep an eye on the Camels and Pirates down the stretch.

It looks like there will be just one regional out west after both Arizona State and Oregon took tough series losses last weekend. Stanford is the lone Pac-12 team in the top 25 of RPI. West Coast teams are given some RPI leniency and Oregon’s not out of it yet, but it’ll need a strong finish.

On the tournament bubble, every SEC bubble team got a boost last weekend with series wins. The conference has a strong case for 11 bids right now, which would be a record. Georgia got squeezed out in this projection, but this might just be the year the SEC sets a new high. For further bubble analysis, check out Bubble Watch.