Arizona is projected as a three seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament South Regional against Arkansas State in the most recent Bracketology update by Joe Lunardi of ESPN on Tuesday. Lunardi projects Arizona to play Arkansas State in San Diego, with the winner to play either sixth-seed Ohio State or 11th-seed Memphis.
The same half of the South Bracket has second-seeded St. John's playing 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast in Philadelphia. The winner of St. John's and FGCU will play whoever emerges victorious between seventh-seed Oregon and 10th-seed Vanderbilt in the second round.
Lunardi projects Purdue as the top seed, Auburn fourth and Louisville fifth as the top-seeded teams in the top half of the South bracket. Ninth-seeded Baylor who is projected to play former conference rival Missouri, is the Big XII team other than Arizona projected to play in the South Region.
Lunardi projects Houston as the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament in the Midwest Region that will be in Chicago. Illinois is projected as the fourth seed in the Midwest Region. The Fighting Illini have advanced to the Regional Semifinals only once since 2005.
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Florida in the East in Washington D.C. and Duke in the West in San Jose are the other top seeds projected by Lunardi. Iowa State is a three seed in the East and BYU a two seed in the East among other Big XII programs that are projected in the top four seeds on Lunardi's bracket.
Arizona will play Auburn and Florida in 2025-26. Lunardi projects UCLA as the fourth seed in the West, Connecticut as the two seed and Alabama as the five seed in the Midwest and San Diego State as the 11th seed in the East, among the other programs on the 2025 Arizona non-conference schedule.
The Arizona non-conference schedule with so many teams projected as high seeds in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, in addition to their Big XII slate, should put Arizona in position to have one of the highest net ratings when the committee meets the second weekend in March in Indianapolis.