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By Matthew Couden
Contributing Writer
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A busy weekend of NCAA men's basketball conference games has given way to a brand new reveal of March Madness bracket projections ahead of the Big Dance.
ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi is well known for his "Bracketology" projections for the tournament, which he updates as the season unfolds. Lunardi is usually pretty close with his projections, too, although snubs and surprises are known to occur.
Some of those surprises occur during March Madness before the NCAA Tournament arrives. In the coming week, many of the significant college basketball conference tournaments will occur, including the ACC, SEC, Big East, and Big Ten.
Read More on NCAA
Several of those conferences feature some of the top seeds headed to the tournament, but could also bring upsets as a team nobody was even considering makes a late-season run to claim an NCAA Tournament spot.
Read more: Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament 2026 Bracket: Seedings and Full Schedule
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Lunardi's Bracket Projections Bring Top Seed Prediction
This weekend's games included the No. 4-ranked UConn Huskies losing at Marquette, which seemingly secured the SEC's Florida Gators as a No. 1 seed.
Read more: Michigan State’s Tom Izzo Addresses Jeremy Fears’ Kick on Michigan Player
The Gators, who are the reigning National Champions, have been scorching hot and after a win Saturday, are riding an 11-game winning streak.
They join the Duke Blue Devils, Arizona Wildcats, and Michigan Wolverines, who have been among Lunardi's top seeds most of this college basketball season. Will one of those teams cut down the nets when the Big Dance is over?
Based on a recent prediction from college basketball analyst Seth Davis, all four of those teams will likely reach the Final Four, meaning that one of them will become the champion.
"Feels like we are headed for another one seed party at the Final Four," Davis wrote on Sunday night after Michigan defeated Michigan State in earlier action.
"Once every 40 years whether we need it or not…," Lunardi replied in sharing Davis' prediction for the top seeds.
ESPN's Lunardi updated his bracket projections for March Madness on Sunday evening, and what makes Davis' prediction so bold is that the month is known for surprise upsets and Cinderellas.
When fans attack filling out their brackets, they'll always consider that element that makes the NCAA Tournament so exciting and unpredictable. It's the madness of it all.
When Did All No. 1 Seeds Reach the Final Four?
The tournament has expanded over the years. According to NCAA.com, after the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the No. 1 seed has won it all 26 times out of 40, or 65 percent of the time over those 40-plus years.
In 2008, all four No. 1 seeds reached a historic Final Four, with Kansas winning the championship. The same occurred with the top seeds last year when Florida won it. Will it happen back-to-back in historic fashion, or will fans wait longer to see this phenomenon again?
As of this writing, Duke is the odds-on-favorite to win the 2026 championship, followed by Michigan, Arizona, and Florida. However, potential spoiler teams are lingering, such as Houston, Illinois, UConn, and Iowa State.
And that's before even considering those magical Cinderella stories that emerge and captivate much attention in March.
Stay tuned as conference tournaments arrive this week, and then Selection Sunday reveals a glimpse at who could dethrone top seeds and dance all the way to the championship in the bracket.
Read more: SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament 2026 Bracket: Seedings and Full Schedule
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