2025 NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Big Ten and SEC both loaded, but only one with top talent

This season’s version of Bracket Watch, based entirely on guesswork, was too late for my editor for a well-known reason: The math wasn’t right.

This is a common suffering of the sportswriter, and he constantly went through every automatic bid and couldn’t figure out why the total was 31 instead of the necessary 32. There are 32 automatic bids and 36 general bids, right? Which league with a little less fame and entitlement to an application was missing? Got the Big Sky…the Ivy…the MEAC…the Southland…

The answer, of course, is that the Pac-12 has the Cougs, the Beavs and the Shots to thank (in a media day turned happy hour). That will change in 2026-27 when Gonzaga, Boise State and four others join, returning the league to the eight teams required for an automatic bid. And that’s a good reason to take a quick look back at other things that are different about the 2024-25 season.

Tony Bennett suddenly withdrew from Virginia. John Calipari moved from Kentucky to Arkansas, bringing with him DJ Wagner (Kentucky), Johnell Davis (Florida Atlantic) and Jonas Aidoo (Tennessee). Duke’s Jeremy Roach is at Baylor, Arizona’s Oumar Ballo is at Indiana and Wisconsin’s AJ Storr is at Kansas.

UConn is different, but again, scary and title-worthy. Kansas may have sorted something out on the shooting front. Alabama appears to be the most talented team in the country. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are now in the Big 12, making Sean Elliott, James Harden, Chauncey Billups and Keith Van Horn Big 12 legends (although Elliott played when it was the Big 8, and so did Billups, for that matter ). actually played in the Big 12).

These Cougs and Beavs get their first taste of Gonzaga as they compete in the WCC, while Stanford and Cal go bicoastal with their ACC membership. Thank you, football! UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington make the Big Ten a healthy 18 schools, while Texas and Oklahoma bring the SEC to 16.

Unsurprisingly, these two leagues lead the preseason bracket watch with 10 bids each. They are the rich kids of the group and bring lobster rolls to the lunch table while everyone else munch on Salisbury steak. But they are currently far from equal in basketball.

The Big Ten’s first entry on the seeding list is Zach Edey-less Purdue at No. 15. Indiana has the most talent on paper, but right now it seems likely that the league will extend its national championship drought – that of Tom Izzo and Michigan State won it in 2000.

Five SEC teams are seeded higher than Purdue, and you can root for all five — Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M — as title contenders. And while the Big 12 is close behind with nine applicants, it has the highest concentration of contenders. Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, Baylor and newcomer Arizona all finish in the top dozen.

Next time on Bracket Watch, we’ll have actual data to put together a field a few weeks into the season, and some of those preseason impressions will already be looking shaky. That doesn’t mean you have to wait until then to complain about it. See you in the comments!

(Photos by Mark Sears, Alex Karaban: Bob Donnan, Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)