Florida Is Joe Lunardi's No. 1 Overall Seed and the Big Ten Is About to Dominate Again
Michigan just won a national championship, ending a 26-year Big Ten title drought, and now the conference is already positioned to run it back. ESPN's latest Bracketology for the 2026-27 season has the Big Ten representing three of the top five teams on the board, and if back-to-back title talk hasn't started yet, it's coming soon.
But here's the wild part: the No. 1 overall seed belongs to Florida. The Gators return Thomas Haugh and are fresh off being a national champion once removed, which puts them right at the top of Joe Lunardi's board as we head into the offseason. The transfer portal deadline has passed, most of the impact transfers are in place, and now we're getting a real picture of what next season looks like.
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Michigan earned the top seed in the Midwest region. Michigan State grabbed the No. 1 seed out West. The conference has teams scattered across the top of every region, and the depth is genuinely scary. Once you factor out expected first-round NBA picks leaving for the league, the forecast for the Big Ten looks even more promising. This isn't just one team getting hot in March. This is a conference stacked from top to bottom.
Welcome Back, Pac-12
There's something huge happening in the structural landscape too. The Pac-12 is officially back as a conference starting July 1, and Gonzaga is the designated automatic qualifier for the West Coast Conference through the new conference alignment. Meanwhile, Austin Peay enters as the automatic qualifier for the United Athletic (formerly WAC) out of the Atlantic Sun. The bracket is now factoring in all 32 conferences, and the landscape is shifting in real time.
Iowa is the last team in. Oregon is the first team out. The bubble is crowded with Wisconsin, UCLA, LSU, NC State, Creighton, and a bunch of others fighting for their tournament lives as we look ahead.
The 2026-27 season tips off soon. This bracket is going to look completely different once actual games are played.
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