Bracketology 2026 Expert Predictions for Men's Top Four Seeds

There is little to no debate regarding the top four seeds in the 2026 NCAA tournament.

The Duke Blue Devils, Michigan Wolverines, Arizona Wildcats and Florida Gators all established themselves as the top four teams in the sport over the last few months.

Each of those programs should have a No. 1 next to its names on Selection Sunday.

The only real debate you can have right now is which team deserves to be the No. 1 overall seed, but some experts believe that Duke already wrapped that up.

Duke

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Duke is expected to be the No. 1 overall seed in the field of 68.

The Blue Devils finished off their tremendous ACC campaign with a tournament title on Saturday night.

Duke is the No. 1 team in the NCAA's NET rankings and a clear top seed in the latest bracket projections from Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller and ESPN's Joe Lunardi.

The No. 1 overall seed comes with the ability to choose where the first-and-second-round games are played.

Duke's path to the Final Four will likely go through Greenville, South Carolina and then the East region in Washington, D.C.

Arizona

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Arizona secured the Big 12 tournament title on Saturday night with a win over the Houston Cougars.

Tommy Lloyd's team should be the top seed in the West region when the brackets are released on Sunday.

That means Arizona will not have to leave the Pacific time zone on its quest to reach the Final Four in Indianapolis.

Arizona should play its opening-weekend contests in San Diego before it heads up the California coast to San Jose.

Arizona is currently No. 3 in the NET rankings, but you could make a case for it to be the No. 2 overall seed because it won the regular-season and tournament titles in the Big 12, which is arguably the toughest league in men's college basketball.

Michigan

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Michigan is the only projected No. 1 seed scheduled to play on Sunday.

The Wolverines will take on the Purdue Boilermakers in the Big Ten tournament title game, which is typically the last game to end before the Selection Show.

Michigan, No. 2 in the NET rankings, still has a chance to go after the No. 1 overall seed. That is significant for the Wolverines' situation because they would get to choose their opening-weekend destination.

In that scenario, the Wolverines would select Philadelphia because it has games on Friday and Sunday. That's a more advantageous spot for Michigan instead of heading to Buffalo for games on Thursday and Saturday.

Lunardi currently has the Wolverines headed to Buffalo as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region.

The extra day of rest won't matter against a No. 16 seed, but it could be a factor in a second-round game. Regardless, Michigan is expected to be in the Sweet 16.

Florida

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Florida secured the fourth and final No. 1 seed despite losing to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday.

Florida was in direct competition with the UConn Huskies for a No. 1 seed, but UConn fell by double digits in the Big East tournament final to the St. John's Red Storm.

Both Miller and Lunardi have the Gators penciled in as a No. 1 seed on top of the South region.

Florida's path to the Final Four will likely be Tampa for the opening weekend and then Houston for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.

The reigning national champion will likely get the highest-rated No. 2 seed in its bracket. As of Sunday morning, Houston was No. 5 in the NET rankings behind the Gators in fourth.