March is just about a week away. For college basketball fans, that’s the best news ever. March Madness is fast approaching, and the pressure is ramping up for teams on the bubble. Teams at the top are also fighting for prime positioning as the top seeds in the tournament. The selection committee just announced its top-16 seeds heading into the final stretch of the season.
NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Announces Top-16 Teams
The committee is picking the top four seeds in each region if the season ended today. The teams named in this list are some of the favorites to head to the Final Four in Indianapolis and potentially cut down the nets for the national championship.
Take a look at the top-16 seeds and the regions they are set to play in:
- Michigan (Midwest)
- Duke (East)
- Arizona (West)
- Iowa State (South)
- UConn (South)
- Houston (Midwest)
- Illinois (East)
- Purdue (West)
- Florida (Midwest)
- Kansas (East)
- Nebraska (South)
- Gonzaga (West)
- Texas Tech (South)
- Michigan State (West)
- Vanderbilt (East)
- Virginia (Midwest)
Top 16 NCAA Selection Committee Reveal:
No. 1 Michigan (Midwest)
No. 2: Duke (East)
No. 3 Arizona (West)
No. 4 Iowa State (South)
No. 5 UConn (South)
No. 6 Houston (Midwest)
No. 7 Illinois (East)
No. 8 Purdue (West)
No. 9 Florida (Midwest)
No. 10 Kansas… https://t.co/yfPiSKxMv5— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 21, 2026
To no one’s surprise, Duke, Michigan, and Arizona are leading the pack as they’ve been all season. Michigan is the No. 1 overall seed after its dominant win over Purdue helped it rise to the best team in college basketball right now. The benefit of being the top seed is getting to choose which region they are placed in and where they play in the first and second rounds.
Iowa State picked up a massive win at Hilton Coliseum on Monday over No. 2 Houston. This moved the Cyclones to the final No. 1 seed with a few games to go. The committee rewarded Iowa State for its back-to-back wins over Kansas and Houston and will have to hold out to keep its spot on the No. 1 seed line.
The selection committee discussed on the show that Alabama and Arkansas were two of the teams that just missed out. Along with that, they explained that in order to keep the regions balanced, Virginia and Michigan State were swapped to maintain the most even set of regions.
The decision that will draw a lot of attention is Texas Tech as the No. 13 overall seed. They lost their top player, JT Toppin, to a torn ACL, which will affect their ability to compete down the stretch. With an expectation that they might drop out of the top-16 after their loss to Arizona State and Toppin’s injury, the committee justified the Red Raiders as being on the No. 3 seed line before the loss, which keeps them in the top-16.
There’s no doubt that this will change over the next few weeks. Selection Sunday is three weeks from Sunday, and teams will pick up quality wins and suffer upset losses to shake up the landscape. In fact, the top two teams, Duke and Michigan, will square off tonight in a battle of heavyweights to potentially secure the No. 1 overall seed, barring any future upsets.
But for now, these teams know where they stand and what they’ll need to do to maintain or improve their position. Let the madness begin.
