Bracketology: Predicting the 2025 NCAA Tournament field – New Year, New Projections
01/02/2025 09:55 AM
In the days of auld lang syne, I would’ve began this week’s edition of Bracketology with some sort of cutesy, “Here are 25 Players who will impact the race for the 2025 National Championship” gimmick. However, in the spirit of the New Year, I’d rather save that idea — maybe for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament — and instead use this intro section to send a message to all of the college basketball fans out there, and to all of those who aren’t fans of college basketball who happened to stumble upon this column for lord knows what reason.
I don’t know what the year 2025 may hold, but I do know that if we all commit to being kind to ourselves and kind to one another, it has a chance — at least a chance — of being a good year. There will be stumbles along the way and unforeseen roadblocks that pop up, but on the heels of this holiday season, let’s remember that for the most part, we’ve all got people we can turn to when the going gets tough, and it doesn’t just need to be during the month of December.
So therefore, I say let us all do our part in making 2025 a fantastic year, not just for ourselves, but for others… even Duke fans.
Bracketology Bracket
Bracketology Breakdown
Top Seeds: Auburn Tigers (South Region), Tennessee Volunteers (Midwest Region), Iowa State Cyclones (West Region), Duke Blue Devils (East Region)
Multi-Bid Leagues: ACC (5), Big 12 (7), Big East (4), Big Ten (11), Mountain West (2), SEC (13), WCC (2)
Bracketology Bubble Watch
Last Four Byes: Saint Mary’s, Nebraska, Ohio State, Creighton
Last Four In: Penn State, North Carolina, Missouri, SMU
First Four Out: Boise State, Arizona State, BYU, Vanderbilt
Next Four Out: Indiana, St. Bonaventure, Louisville, Washington State
Five Most Intriguing Games of the Weekend
Saturday January 4th (ESPN, 11 AM ET) – Florida at Kentucky
Saturday January 4th (ESPN, 1 PM ET) – Arkansas at Tennessee
Saturday January 4th (CBS, 2 PM ET) – Baylor at Iowa State
Saturday January 4th (The CW Network, 2:15 PM ET) – Duke at SMU
Sunday January 5th (Peacock, 4 PM ET) – Maryland at Oregon
And One!
In the last edition of Bracketology, my perfect streak of correct And One! predictions to begin the season was snapped thanks to the Oregon Ducks, who laid an egg in the Rose Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes, pun very much intended. As I declared last week, my New Year’s resolution in 2025 is to stick to just college basketball predictions in this section of the column moving forward, and I intend to keep this resolution longer than I kept my resolution to eat healthier in 2025, because it’s 9:30 in the morning and I just had two Christmas cookies for breakfast. In my defense, one had raisins, so I got a serving of fruit.
Anyway, if you check out next week’s college hoops slate of games, there’s the potential for a battle of the unbeatens showdown on January 7th between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Florida Gators. That is if both the Vols and the Gators can get through tough tests this weekend, as listed up above.
So perhaps it’s a little bit of wishful thinking here, but I believe that Florida and Tennessee will both secure SEC wins over the weekend over Kentucky and Arkansas respectively, setting up a high profile showdown at the O’Dome on January 7th.
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)
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