RULE
ESPN’s Bracketology efforts are focused on projecting the NCAA’s playing field just as we expected the NCAA Division I basketball committee to pick the field in March. ESPN’s frame researcher Charlie Creme . in his predictions about the field. Visit the NCAA’s website for a fuller understanding of NCAA Selection Criteria.
Frame 64 teams
The 64-team tournament area is the standard version of the NCAA field that has been in place since 1994. However, if the 2021 field consists of 64 teams, there will be some key differences from previous years.
Of course, the main tweak from a normal year is the playing of the entire NCAA tournament in a single venue. This eliminates the need for geographical considerations when seeding. Additionally, there will be at least one automatic qualifier this season, as the Ivy League’s decision to forgo the 2020-21 season reduces the number of AQ entries to 31 for this season.
48 teams group stage
In this forecast, a condensed selection process would reduce the field to eight major teams and eight automatic qualifiers (the latter still receiving one revenue unit). The top four seeds from each region will bid farewell to the second round, with the first four matches for each region – 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9.
16-team frame
In this project, the committee will select the 16 best teams available. There is no automatic qualifier, although all non-competitive conference champions receive a designated revenue unit.
To maintain some sense of national balance, conference participation was limited to four teams. And no region has more than one team from the same convention.
