Welcome all to the dance floor.
Welcome to Queens and California Baptist for the first time, and Kentucky for the 64th.
Welcome to Kansas for the 36th consecutive tournament and Michigan State for the 28th and Gonzaga for the 27th. Also Idaho, who took 36 years to get back, and Tennessee State, who has been longing to return for 32 years, and Santa Clara, waiting 30 years for this, and Hofstra, last seen in 2001, since the automatic bid the Pride earned in 2020 was aborted by the pandemic.
MARCH MADNESS: Official 2026 men’s tournament bracket
Welcome to two Miamis. The one from Florida who remade itself after sagging to 7-24 last season. The one from Ohio who became famous by going 31-0 this regular season and whose fate Sunday after losing was watched from coast to coast to see if the committee would actually say no to a 31-1 team.
Welcome to 32-2 Duke at the top of the seeding list and 18-17 Prairie View A&M at the bottom, the Panthers having won the SWAC tournament from eighth place.
Welcome to the 14 teams who won their conference tournaments as the No. 1 seeds, meaning 17 did not, many of them with broken hearts and no bids on Selection Sunday.
Welcome to Hawai’i, the team with five married players. The 50th state being represented for the first time since 2016 is a reminder that Alaska and Maine are the only two states never to have a team in the NCAA tournament.
Now that they’re all here, what happens now? Selection Sunday told us what everyone already knew — Duke, Michigan, Arizona and Florida are the top of the heap, sweeping the four power league season titles with a staggering combined conference record of 68-6. It will all start with them this March, and nobody would be shocked to see all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four for the second consecutive year, which would be unprecedented.
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But Selection Sunday is also a teaser, suggesting the possible intrigue and drama ahead for several teams.
These, for instance.
ST. JOHN’S
It’s not all that common to see a team win both the Big East season and tournament title and be a No. 5 seed, but here the Red Storm are, having just blown past Connecticut. Now look what their road could be in the East.
First, Northern Iowa, with its No. 1 ranked scoring defense in the nation. Then maybe Kansas, who will be trying to avoid some bad history. If the Jayhawks don’t get past the first weekend that’d be four years in a row and the longest such dry spell in Lawrence in 41 years.
Then what for St. John’s, shock Duke in the Sweet 16? Get to the school’s first Final Four in 41 years? Should that happen, Rick Pitino would have his fourth different program in the Final Four.
UCLA
How’s Tyler Bilodeau? How’s Donovan Dent? Both were hurt in the Big Ten tournament and they’re only the Bruins’ two top scorers. But if they’re back, this is a team that in the recent past beat Illinois, Nebraska by 20 and Michigan State. They could be a problem not only for UCF in the first round but potentially Connecticut in the second round. That match would be the top championship program from the 20th century going against the top championship dynasty from the 21st century.
NEBRASKA
The Cornhuskers started the season 20-0. Then they went 6-6. The Big Ten can do that to people, but neither of those is the Nebraska record that will get endlessly talked about the next few days. This is: 0-8. That’s the Cornhuskers’ all-time record in the NCAA tournament, leaving them the only power conference program without a win. Ever. They can end that pain against Troy.
HOUSTON
It’s just under three miles from the Fertitta Center to the Toyota Center. The former is the home arena for the Cougars, the latter is the site of the South Regional. That’s where Houston will be playing if the Cougars can get past Idaho and then either Saint Mary’s or Texas A&M. Thank you, selection committee.
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Here’s what that could mean: If it comes down to top two seeds in the region playing for the ticket to the Final Four, that would be Florida against Houston and a rematch of last April’s national championship game. Dramatic deja vu, indeed. Only this one will be within walking distance of the Cougars’ campus.
Recent history suggests the odds are heavy Houston makes it that far. The Cougars’ streak of six consecutive trips to the Sweet 16 is the longest in the country.
ILLINOIS
First up for the Illini is Penn, and if the Quaker players don’t seem familiar, the coach should. Fran McCaffery was a long-time opponent at Iowa before parting ways and going to Penn this season. Know who his last-ever loss as Iowa coach came against? Sure. Illinois.
The Illini could ride a while this month. Maybe beat a Caleb Wilson-less North Carolina in the second round. Maybe threaten Houston and Florida the next week. They have a breathtaking offense. But on the other end? Not so much lately. Four of the past nine Illinois games have gone overtime and the Illini averaged 88.5 points in those contests. They lost all four.
HIGH POINT
Quick now. Who has the nation’s longest winning streak? Yep, the Panthers at 14. Who has the largest average scoring margin of anyone in the field? Yep, High Point at 19.7. Who could be a real problem for Wisconsin in the first round? Right.
This might be the most fun first round game to watch in the tournament. The Badgers fire at will from the 3-point line — 33 attempts a game on average — and have one of the most potent one-two guard punches in the land with 21 points a game from Nick Boyd and 19 more from John Blackwell. The game likely won’t be in the 50s.
PURDUE
The Boilermakers went from preseason No. 1 to what’s going on? They limped into the Big Ten tournament as the No. 7 seed and then proceeded to win four games in four days. The Michigan team that bashed the conference all winter? Purdue led the Wolverines by 14 points Sunday and trailed for only just over eight minutes. The Boilermakers were behind a total of 48 seconds the other three games.
Braden Smith is not piling up the points but of the 101 non-Smith baskets Purdue scored in the Big Ten tournament, he assisted on 46 of them. He needs two assists to pass Bobby Hurley for the all-time NCAA assist record and should do that in the early minutes of the first round game with Queens.
SCHEDULE: The official 2026 March Madness tournament schedule, dates
But what happens with Purdue after that? The conference tournament title pushed the Boilermakers back to the No. 2 seed line. Miami — the Florida variety — seems a probable second round opponent and then maybe Gonzaga in what would be a boffo Sweet 16 game. The horizons for Purdue seem a lot more vast than a week ago.
MIAMI (Ohio)
Yep, the RedHawks are in, and their First Four game in Dayton is only 40 miles from campus. So SMU can plan on what will feel and sound like a road game Wednesday. A win there and Miami heads to Philadelphia to play Tennessee. That won’t be easy.
But Wednesday night with the RedHawks fans getting a chance to see them play is a good reward for 31-1 and all they went through to get it. Yes, they did not face a single Quad 1 opponent this season (Auburn was left out of the bracket after playing 17), But the tonnage of the record atoned for that.
There’s one other stat they’d like to add to as well. The Miami women won the MAC title and together they have 59 wins. The only Division I school in the nation with more is Connecticut at 63.
“That’s pretty heady territory,” athletic director David Sayler said. “I think you could win a lot of money in trivia if you asked somebody who was first or second in total wins. They’d probably get UConn but not many would get Miami.”
ALL UNDERDOGS
The public wants first-round upsets. Yearns for them. Picks them with wishful thinking. And this bracket provides some attractive choices.
South Florida and its momentum over Louisville. The Bulls, only a year removed from a 13-19 record, just won the American Conference, both season and tournament. Their only three defeats in the past 22 games came by one point, one point in overtime and three in overtime.
McNeese, second in the nation in forcing turnovers, causing Vanderbilt trouble.
VCU taking advantage of no Caleb Wilson against North Carolina.
Santa Clara dumping Kentucky. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s dominate the West Coast Conference, but the Broncos beat both this season. Their coach, Herb Sendek, was once a Kentucky assistant.
Akron, winner of 19 of 20, bushwhacking injury-plagued Texas Tech.
High Point outgunning Wisconsin.
All might happen, none might happen. But there’s a troubling question. Is the modern climate with NIL and transfer portal, and the way mid-major rosters are annually drained now, in danger of making upsets obsolete? The 2025 NCAA tournament is a very small sample size but it was not comforting.
The NCAA record book defines a major upset when the winner is at least five seed lines lower than the loser. There were 14 of those in 2021, 13 in 2022, nine each in 2023 and 2024. Last year there were only four.
And it wasn’t that the big boys weren’t upset. Often they weren’t even scared. Only four of the 32 first-round games last season were decided by five or fewer points. Twenty were won by double digits, 12 by 20 or more.
It was the first time in 18 years that no team seeded lower than 10th made it to the Sweet 16. The total seeds added together in the Sweet 16 last March was 45, the lowest number since seeding was introduced in 1979.
A one-year blip? Lovers of March Madness would certainly hope so. There needs to be surprises, unrest, chaos. We’ll see starting Tuesday night in Dayton. And maybe the first game is a hopeful omen.
Howard vs. UMBC. Yes, that UMBC. The No. 16 seed history maker over Virginia in 2018. Just a reminder of what can happen this week.
