Bracketology: Predicting the 2025 NCAA Tournament field – Is Alabama a basketball school?

01/20/2025 11:00 AM

Hello friends, and welcome to another edition of Bracketology here at ClutchPoints! For the first time in a month, there is shake-up on the 1-line, with the Alabama Crimson Tide taking over in place of the Tennessee Volunteers. The Vols suffered an upset loss as the hands of unranked Vandy on Saturday afternoon, paving the way for Alabama to earn top-seed status despite losing to Ole Miss earlier in the week. A win at Rupp Arena and a rock solid resume that includes a 10-3 record in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games was just too much to overlook.

This development, along with the success that the Alabama basketball program has had since Nate Oats took over as head coach in 2019 got me pondering an interesting question that I’d like to work through here today if you don’t mind… Is Alabama becoming a basketball school right before our eyes?

So in order to answer this question, I felt compelled to first investigate if there were any instances in the past where over time a football school became a basketball school, or vice versa. After a day of research, here’s what I found:

-You could make that case that prior to Jim Boeheim’s arrival at Syracuse in 1976, the Orange were more of a football school than they were a basketball school, though calling Syracuse a football school based on their success in the 1950’s and 1960’s feels like a bit of a stretch. Though, the fact that the school produced Jim Brown, Ernie Davis — the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy — and Larry Csonka in a 13 year stretch feels significant. The Orange also won the 1959 National Championship.

-Though they are typically thought of as a football school, the Ohio State Buckeyes had just as much success on the hardwood as they did on the gridiron in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. Consider, in that 30 year span, the Buckeyes made seven Final Fours and won one National Title, while also winning four National Championships in football as well.

-The Michigan Wolverines claimed ten College Football National Championships in the first half of the 20th century, but then went from 1949 to 1996 without winning another. During that time, the Wolverines basketball team had a great deal of success, making five National Championship Games and cutting down the nets once.

-The closest example of this that I could find was the Michigan State Spartans, who claimed a share of six National Titles between 1951 and 1966. However, despite that success on the football field, nobody would mistake the Spartans for anything but a basketball school. Tom Izzo is one of the most highly regarded coaches in college basketball history, having led Sparty to the Big Dance every year since 1998, with eight Final Four appearances to his name.

With all of this said, I should acknowledge that this is a much more difficult proposition in SEC country, where college football is practically religion. In Alabama in particular, where legends like Bear Bryant and Nick Saban have made the Tide the most successful football program of the last century, this is an almost impossible hill to climb. But here’s what I will say… if I had to bet my life on a team to win the National Championship this year, I’m probably rolling with the Tide.

And with that, let’s get to our updated Bracketology projections.

Bracketology Bracket 

Bracketology Breakdown 

Top Seeds: Auburn Tigers (South Region), Duke Blue Devils (East Region), Alabama Crimson Tide (Midwest Region), Iowa State Cyclones (West Region)

Multi-Bid Leagues: ACC (5), Big 12 (7), Big East (4), Big Ten (10), Mountain West (3), SEC (13), WCC (2)

Bracketology Bubble Watch 

Last Four Byes: San Diego State, Pittsburgh, New Mexico, Vanderbilt

Last Four In: Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio State

First Four Out: Cincinnati, Dayton, SMU, Iowa

Next Four Out: Villanova, Indiana, UCF, Drake

Five Most Intriguing Games of the Week

Wednesday January 22nd (ESPN2, 9 PM ET) – Texas A&M at Ole Miss

Friday January 24th (FOX, 8 PM ET) – Michigan at Purdue

Saturday January 25th (SEC Network, 3:30 PM ET) – Georgia at Florida

Saturday January 25th (ESPN, 6:30 PM ET) – Houston at Kansas

Saturday January 25th (ESPN, 8:30 PM ET) – Tennessee at Auburn

And One! 

So my New Year’s Resolution was that in the And One! section of my weekly Bracketology column, I would stick to college basketball predictions rather than sprinkling in predictions elsewhere. This raises an issue this week, because I actually have a bold prediction for the National Championship Game being played in Atlanta on Monday night. But in the interest of keeping my word, I’ll keep that suggestion to myself.

Instead, let me just say that I think that this week, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team will have more success than the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team. 

here’s 29 seconds of alexis rose trying to wink pic.twitter.com/361lVauIT5

— Schitt’s Creek (@SchittsCreek) June 26, 2019

Past And One! Predictions 

11/24/24 – I’ll eat way too much food on Thanksgiving (CORRECT)

12/2/24 – The Big 12 will win the Big East-Big 12 Battle (CORRECT) and the SEC will win the ACC-SEC Challenge (CORRECT)

12/12/24 – At least nine of those 12 SEC teams in the December 12th Bracketology field will be victorious over the weekend (CORRECT)

12/16/24 – Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State will win in the opening round of the College Football Playoff (CORRECT)

12/23/24 – Penn State, Texas, Oregon and Notre Dame will win in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff (INCORRECT)

1/2/25 – Florida and Tennessee will both secure SEC wins over the weekend over Kentucky and Arkansas respectively (INCORRECT)

1/6/25 – By mid-February, Arizona will be considered at least a 9-seed by not only myself, but by my fellow Bracketologists as well (TBD)

1/13/25 – Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans will win their first Big Ten regular season title since 2020 (TBD)

The post Bracketology: Predicting the 2025 NCAA Tournament field – Is Alabama a basketball school? appeared first on ClutchPoints.