Every year, the "College GameDay" crew staffs "The Bracketology Show" on Selection Sunday. And every year, we are handed a bracket by one of our crack assistants to fill out ... in a grand total of five minutes. We make our rushed, thoughtless selections so they can be displayed to the unwashed masses.
We know there will be upsets, but which ones? When we pick upsets, we are called reckless. When we go with the "better team," we are called gutless. (Of course, both are true.)
Sure, we complain. Wouldn't it be great if we had more time to contemplate our selections? That's where this column comes in -- my "More Than Five Minute" bracket. Usually, I make picks with confidence. This year, though, the field is full of question marks, inconsistent teams and injury questions -- coin flips, educated guesses and head-scratchers.
Fitting, for one of the craziest, most interesting basketball seasons on record. The SEC left us all breathless with praise; we have never seen such a powerful league, top to bottom, relative to the field. The SEC earned 14 bids to the NCAA tournament, a record that is unlikely to be broken (unless we go to 30-team leagues in the future); the league has four top-2 seeds and six top-4 seeds, which are also records.
Of course, that does not mean that the national champion will come from the SEC. It doesn't work that way. Maybe it will even come from the ACC, which received four bids, tied for its lowest since 2013 -- and that included North Carolina, the last team selected, confounding bracketologists everywhere. The Tar Heels played a tough schedule, but they did not win against it. Heads exploded when North Carolina showed up on the board.
Six teams in this year's field have won at least 30 games (with three of them in the West Region). Houston, Duke, UC San Diego, High Point, McNeese, Colorado State and Robert Morris all enter the tournament on at least a 10-game winning streak -- and UC San Diego leads the way with 15 straight wins.
The No. 1 seeds were noncontroversial, with Auburn, Duke and Houston locking up a spot seemingly ages ago (Florida was the other 1-seed). The field is strong at the top; I see St. John's and Michigan State with great draws to the Elite Eight. But after the top two seed lines, the bracket is filled with question marks -- which means plenty of intrigue. Tennessee, Missouri, BYU, Creighton, Xavier and Utah State have a combined 170 bids among them historically without a Final Four appearance.
This year, I am confident in the No. 1 seeds. Of course, last year I was confident that UConn and Purdue would reach the title game, but I never saw NC State coming. (I never saw Jamal Shead's injury coming, either. Things happen.) This year, though, the No. 1 seeds look stronger in every region, and all give the feeling that they will advance despite the competition. The last -- and only -- time all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four was in 2008, and yours truly picked the exact Final Four on Selection Sunday. And would you look at that -- the 2008 Final Four was in San Antonio, the site of the 2025 Final Four.
This "More Than Five-Minute Bracket" might not be perfect. But maybe it will. The truth is, I am never wrong. I once thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken. If you decide to take my selections for use in your bracket ... you're welcome.