Reactions to the 2026 men's NCAA tournament field of 68 - ESPN

Well, after 4½ months of play, the bracket for the 2026 men's NCAA tournament is set with the 68 teams that will vie for the national title.

How do we feel about the way the seedings and pairings played out?

It's hard to be critical of a 12-person selection committee that just made you look a whole lot smarter than you really are, so I won't go there.

What I'll do, instead, is offer a handful of «kudos» and «crank» that came to mind as the selection show unfolded:

Kudos: For swapping Arizona and Michigan as the respective No. 2 and No. 3 overall seeds. This was justified when Michigan lost the Big Ten championship game but something most past selectors would have ignored. (So much so that I forgot to do it myself!) It's also a swap that has absolutely no impact on any team's seeding or placement — but it will bring a smile to bracket nerds everywhere.

Kudos: For going beyond the numbers in the cases of 2-seed Purdue and 3-seed Virginia, with both landing in better spots than was the case just a week or two ago. Selfishly, I did the same thing but wasn't at all sure of that decision. Also selfishly, I'm delighted to have UVA leading one of the two pods in Philadelphia, where I plan to spend the first weekend as a happy spectator. If you're in the neighborhood, feel free to say hello.

Crank: For putting Miami (Ohio) in the First Four. We were all too close to a 31-1 team missing the tournament with this decision. I'm going to spare everyone the histrionics since that didn't actually happen, but seriously? Selection committee chair Keith Gill did a nice job explaining that the RedHawks weren't actually the last team selected, despite their ignominious place on the seed list.

Kudos: Three WCC teams, two Atlantic 10 teams and