NCAA Brackets 2015: Upset Picks for Each Region

If there's one trend proven true each year in the NCAA tournament, it's the inevitability of upsets coming in every region. The 2015 bracket promises to be no different.

Only the best 68 teams in the nation get into the Big Dance, and for every unlikely conference tournament champion double-digit seed, there are twice as many explosive and capable squads with high seeds ready to pull the upset and send big favorites home packing.

Many of the regions are so stacked that the cream may rise to the top as the tournament progresses, but the opening weekend is ripe with opportunity for the underdogs. Here's an early glance at one big upset for each region.

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Midwest: No. 11 Texas over No. 6 Butler

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Even amid a late-season slide in Big 12 play, Texas still looked the part of a team that could wreak havoc if it made its way off the bubble and into the field. Now that the Longhorns are in, they face a Butler team heading in the wrong direction.

The Bulldogs have lost two of three—and four of eight—to end the season and don't have nearly the size to contend with Rick Barnes' lengthy and athletic squad. Butler is vulnerable when it meets physical perimeter defenses, as Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones have been held in check by similar foes—Oklahoma and Georgetown—this season.

If you take away the seeds, it's not much of an upset, as Odds Shark has Texas as 1.5-point favorites.

Texas' slide from a top-10 program to the bubble raised eyebrows, but it's important to remember that it came amid an impossibly difficult schedule. The Bulldogs have faced better opposition than ever before in the Big East but still aren't nearly as battle-tested as the Longhorns.

West: No. 11 BYU/Ole Miss over No. 6 Xavier

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Before a run to the Big East tournament title game that came out of nowhere, the Xavier Musketeers seemed doomed for a fate much worse than a No. 6 seed. Somehow, the committee overlooked their 9-9 record in conference play prior to that.

Along with inconsistent Big East play, Xavier also has head-scratching nonconference losses to UTEP, Auburn and Long Beach State. The Musketeers are strong in the post, but their lack of a go-to guard hurts them in tight games.

Whether it's Ole Miss or BYU that makes it through, either will be too much for Xavier. The Rebels have a star-studded duo of guards in Stefan Moody and Jarvis Summers and the size down low, while BYU is red hot to finish the season following a late-season win at Gonzaga.

No. 11 seeds have gone from the play-in game to the Sweet 16 in each of the last two tournaments, and the winner of an enticing Dayton matchup between Ole Miss and BYU will have a chance to make it three-for-three.

East: No. 12 Wyoming over No. 5 Northern Iowa

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

Northern Iowa raced its way up rankings late in the season amid a 16-game winning streak that included a win over Wichita State, but it's impossible to overlook that the Shockers were the only ranked team it faced all season.

UNI long looked the part of a dangerous team come tournament time but could ill afford an opening-round matchup like Wyoming now that Larry Nance Jr. is back. The Cowboys are clicking since their leading scorer has returned from missing time due to mono and play in even lower-scoring affairs than the Panthers.

This will be a low-scoring one with both teams averaging less than 66 points per contest, and those sorts of games typically go to the team that can take care of the ball. Few do that better than the Cowboys, as The Cauldron's Andy Glockner noted:

Along with an affinity for not turning the ball over, Wyoming has Nance to match up against UNI leading scorer Seth Tuttle—a matchup Nance has the skill to win.

South: No. 13 Eastern Washington over No. 4 Georgetown

Michael Albans/Associated Press

Georgetown was seeded awfully low for a team with a 21-10 record, with its win over Villanova as a big boost. The Hoyas have been susceptible to upsets in John Thompson III's tenure, and Eastern Washington has the prime recipe for an upset. 

The Eagles shoot the lights out of the ball, ranking third in the NCAA in points per game and hitting a gaudy 40 percent of their three-pointers as a team. Star guard Tyler Harvey—the nation's leading scorer—is a menace to keep contained, but they have scoring touch in the post and second options on the perimeter to keep opponents' hands full.

Georgetown has looked shaky down the stretch of the season, but that's not the only thing the Hoyas have going against them, per Kevin Pelton of ESPN:

The Hoyas are an NCAA tournament regular but have been hard-pressed to make it past the first weekend—they have failed to do so in their last five trips. Unlike the options that the Eagles' Harvey has, the Hoyas' backcourt is run exclusively through D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, and EWU will make it a point to lock him down.