Let the madness begin! The bracket for the men's 2025 NCAA Tournament was announced Sunday, unveiling the 68 teams that secured a spot in the March Madness competition. Earning the four top seeds on Selection Sunday were Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston. Auburn, which lost to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinal on Saturday, took the top seed in the South Region and will play the First Four winner of Alabama St. and Saint Francis. Florida, the SEC champions, takes the top spot in the West Region and will play No. 16 Norfolk St. Duke, which is expected to have Cooper Flag back after the star forward missed the Blue Devils' ACC semifinal and final victories with an ankle injury , will play the First Four winner of American and Mount St. Mary's in the East Region. Houston, the Big 12 Tournament champions who were also a top-seed last year when they lost to Duke in the Elite Eight, will play No. 16 SIU Edwardsville in its NCAA Tournament debut. Elsewhere, back-to-back champion UConn, which is looking to become the first team to three-peat in the men's NCAA Tournament since UCLA in the 1970s, enters as a No. 8 seed and will play No. 9 Oklahoma in the first round. Some quality bubble teams did not make the field — which features 31 automatic bids from conference tournaments. The first four teams out of the tournament were West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio St. and Boise St. The SEC had 14 teams qualify, setting an NCAA Tournament record. The action begins with the First Four matchups on Tuesday and Wednesday at the University of Dayton's UD Arena. The 32 first-round games will then be played on Thursday and Friday. Games for the first and second round of the men's tournament will be played at University of Kentucky; Providence College; University of Washington; Wichita State University; Rocket Arena in Cleveland; Ball Arena in Denver; Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee; Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.
CONTINUE READING
