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ESPN’s efforts in parentheses focus on predictions for the NCAA Tournament field, just as the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee expects to select the field in March. ESPN bracket specialist Charlie Cream uses the same data points that the committee prefers, including schedule strength and other seasonal indicators. To get a more detailed understanding of the NCAA selection criteria, visit the NCAA website.
64 Team Bracket
The 64-team bracket is the standard version of the NCAA Tournament field, which has been in place since 1994. If the 2021 field consists of 64 teams, there are important differences from the past few years.
The main adjustment from normal years is, of course, the performance of the entire NCAA tournament on a single site. This eliminates the need for geographical considerations in seeds. Additionally, there will be at least one automatic qualifier this season as the Ivy League’s decision to abandon the 2020-21 season will reduce the number of AQ entries this season to 31.
48 team brackets
In this projection, the condensed selection process reduces the field with eight large teams and eight automatic qualifiers (the latter still receives revenue units). The top four seeds from each region receive a second round bye and earn four first round games – 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, and 8-9 for each region.
16 team brackets
In this prediction, the committee will select and seed 16 available teams. There are no automatic qualifiers, but all non-competitive conference champions receive a designated revenue unit.
To maintain a sense of national balance, the conference will be concluded with four teams. Also, no region has multiple teams from the same meeting.
