### Shifting Landscape of College Basketball: Alabama Tops Preseason Bracket Amidst Conference Chaos

As the 2025 NCAA Tournament season kicks off, the Alabama Crimson Tide has emerged as the top No. 1 seed, surpassing Kansas, Houston, and UConn in the projected bracket. This achievement comes during a time of significant upheaval in college sports.

One of the most notable changes is the transformation within the Pac-12 conference. Initially reduced to only Oregon State and Washington State, the conference has since bolstered its ranks with the addition of Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State. Despite these new members, the Pac-12 still needs one more all-sports member by the 2026-27 season to maintain its status as a conference.

In an interesting move, Oregon State and Washington State will temporarily join the West Coast Conference for the next two seasons. When they return to the Pac-12, they will be accompanied by Gonzaga, adding an interesting dynamic to the league’s future.

A total of twenty teams have changed conferences this season, including ten former Pac-12 members who have dispersed to various power conferences. Additionally, two new schools, Mercyhurst and West Georgia, have transitioned from Division II to Division I. However, they will not be eligible for the NCAA Tournament until 2029, although they will be included in the NET rankings.

Four teams are making their debut in the NCAA Tournament eligibility this year: Bellarmine, Tarleton State, UC San Diego, and Utah Tech. Bellarmine, having previously won the ASUN Tournament in 2022 before becoming eligible for the NCAA Tournament, can now compete without restrictions.

There have also been updates to the NCAA selection process. With the retirement of Jeff Sagarin’s ratings, Bart Torvik's rankings have been introduced as a replacement. Notably, these rankings feature a recency bias and factor in scoring margins. Additionally, a new metric, Wins Above Bubble (WAB), has been added to the selection committee’s team sheets. WAB calculates the number of wins a team has against the number of wins the 40th ranked team would be expected to have against the same schedule.

For the next couple of seasons, there will be 31 automatic bids, as the Pac-12 will not be competing, leaving 37 at-large spots. This minor reduction will likely go unnoticed, as the Pac-12 champion generally qualifies as at-large worthy. The preseason bracket features five teams from outside the power conferences receiving at-large bids, with 32 spots filled by teams from the Power Four conferences.