Arizona remains the number one seed in the West Region and the third overall seed by Joe Lunardi of ESPN in the latest Bracketology he posted on Tuesday. Michigan is the top overall seed by Lunardi, with Duke and Iowa State the other regional top seeds.
Lunardi projects Arizona as the current automatic qualifier from the Big XII. Houston is 34-4 in two seasons in the Big XII. The Cougars won the 2025 Big XII regular season and tournament titles. Houston was picked first in the Big XII preseason coaches poll.
Lunardi projects Arizona to play America East champion Vermont in the first round. Vermont is currently 198th in the ESPN Basketball Power Index. None of Vermont's 11 games early in the 2025-26 season have been against Power Conference opponents.
The winner of Arizona and Vermont would play the winner of eighth-seeded Indiana and ninth-seed Miami. Indiana is 7-2 and 16th in the BPI. Miami is 8-2 and 35th in the BPI. Arizona beat Vermont 80-51 in the 2003 NCAA Tournament in the programs' only meeting.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) December 9, 2025
Lunardi dropped Purdue from a one seed to the second seed in the West. Houston is the three seed in the West, followed by North Carolina and Florida. Oklahoma State is the 10th seed in the West and Central Florida is a 12th seed in the First Four Game, as other Big XII teams projected by Lunardi.
That projects four teams Arizona will play during the 2025-26 season as being in the same region as them. Iowa State is projected as the top seed in the South Region, which is in Houston, Michigan in the Midwest in Chicago and Duke in the East in Washington D.C.
Other teams on the 2025-26 Arizona schedule that Lunardi projects in the NCAA Tournament are second-seed BYU and eighth-seeded UCLA in the South, third-seed Alabama in the Midwest, second-seed Connecticut, fifth-seed Texas Tech and 10th-seed Baylor in the East.