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Joe Lunardi updates latest bracketology with 7 B1G teams in March Madness
By Keith Farner
Published:
Joe Lunardi sees 7 Big Ten teams making the NCAA Tournament, led by Purdue as a No. 1 seed and the No. 3 overall seed.
The ESPN bracketologist also pegged Illinois as a No. 3 seed (11 overall), and Wisconsin (15) and Michigan State (13) each as No. 4 seeds. The Big Ten teams appear to be solid entrants in the Big Dance, as none of them are mentioned on the last 4 in, or first 4 out categories.
Ohio State is pegged as a 5-seed, while Indiana and Iowa each check in as 7-seeds to round out the field from the Big Ten.
Nationally, Lunardi sees the final 2 No. 1 seeds as up for grabs down the stretch.
In what is expected to be a balanced field, the Big Ten is just one of 3 leagues that are set to receive 7 bids, along with the SEC and Big 12. The Big East with 6, the ACC with 5 and the Pac-12 with 4 teams round out the Power 5 leagues.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 6, 2022
In terms of his summary entering the weekend, Lunardi put it like this from a national perspective:
A second loss to Marquette has dropped Villanova to a 5-seed in this update, the first time all year that the Wildcats have fallen off the top four lines. More pointedly, the ‘Cats are third on the seed list among Big East teams, trailing 3-seed Providence and their 4-seed conquerers from Milwaukee. Far be it from me to suggest a changing of the guard in the Big East — Villanova has answered every similar challenge for a decade — but the possibility exists in a realistic way for the first time since the league’s 2013 realignment. And that is much more a compliment of the Wildcats than any kind of indictment.
Keith Farner has written about college football for newspapers and web sites since 2005.