NCAA Bracket Prediction - 23 Feb

Yesterday was a crazy one for college basketball, with Baylor, Gonzaga, and San Diego State all losing on the same day. While Baylor is still safely a 1 seed, San Diego State's bad loss dropped them down a line, which opened up a spot at the top, but Gonzaga fell later that night, meaning they didn't take it either. In the end, I've put Dayton in that final #1 spot for now, with Gonzaga still sitting as my top 2 seed. Georgetown, Arkansas, and Minnesota all fell from the bracket this week, clearing room for Virginia, NC State, and Utah State to slide into 3 of the play-in slots. As the season is drawing to a close, I will be posting these projections a little more often, so look for the next one this Friday evening. Here is my full current bracket, with projected conference champs in bold, new teams in italics, rising teams in green, and falling teams in red:

	EAST			WEST
1	Duke		1	Dayton
16	Wright State		16	South Dakota State
8	Florida		8	Wisconsin
9	USC		9	Texas Tech
5	Penn State		5	Butler
12	Northern Iowa		12	NC State/Cincinnati
4	Seton Hall		4	Oregon
13	North Texas		13	Yale
6	Michigan		6	Kentucky
11	East Tennessee State		11	Utah State/Virginia
3	Villanova		3	Creighton
14	New Mexico State		14	Little Rock
7	Houston		7	Iowa
10	Illinois		10	Rhode Island
2	Maryland		2	Gonzaga
15	Northern Colorado		15	UC Irvine
	SOUTH			MIDWEST
1	Baylor		1	Kansas
16	Monmouth/NC Central		16	St. Francis (PA)/Prairie View
8	Marquette		8	Xavier
9	Saint Mary’s		9	Wichita State
5	Michigan State		5	Arizona
12	Liberty		12	Akron
4	Colorado		4	Auburn
13	Stephen F Austin		13	Vermont
6	BYU		6	LSU
11	Purdue		11	Rutgers
3	West Virginia		3	Florida State
14	Hofstra		14	Colgate
7	Arizona State		7	Ohio State
10	Indiana		10	Oklahoma
2	Louisville		2	San Diego State
15	Belmont		15	Radford

Last Four Byes

Illinois
Rhode Island
Rutgers
Purdue

Last Four In

Utah State
Virginia
NC State
Cincinnati

First Four Out

Stanford
Richmond
Georgetown
Alabama

Next Four Out

Providence
Arkansas
Mississippi State
Minnesota

Teams by Conference

Big 10 - 11
Big East - 6
Pac 12 - 5
ACC - 5
Big 12 - 5
SEC - 4
West Coast - 3
American - 3
Atlantic 10 - 2
Mountain West - 2