ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his latest bracketology update on Thursday afternoon, and unfortunately for the Big 12, their number of projected tournament bids has fallen.
The UCF Knights, who were listed as the last team in earlier this week, are now on the wrong side of the bubble as the first team out of the tournament.
The Knights aren’t the only Big 12 team on the bubble, either, as Lunardi also has BYU among the First Four Out, and Arizona State in the Next Four Out.
Cincinnati was also on the bubble earlier this week but has fallen off after three straight losses.
With UCF now projected out, Lunardi’s latest Big 12 projection would land seven teams in the tournament, seeded as follows: Iowa State (1), Houston (3), Kansas (3), Arizona (5), Texas Tech (6), Baylor (9), West Virginia (9).
In the scenario listed above, the matchups based on seeding would look like this.
(1) Iowa State vs. (16) Omaha/Long Island
(3) Houston vs. (14) Cleveland State
(3) Kansas vs. (14) Northern Colorado
(5) Arizona vs. (12) Texas/North Carolina
(6) Texas Tech vs. (11) VCU
(8) Creighton vs. (9) Baylor
(8) Utah State vs. (9) West Virginia
The 2025 March Madness tournament will start with Selection Sunday on March 16, with the First Four scheduled for March 18-19. The First Round of the 2025 Men’s basketball tournament will commence on March 20-21 and will end with the National Championship Game on April 7 in San Antonio, Texas.
