Arizona Wildcats a No. 3 seed in NCAA March Madness bracket preview

Selection Sunday is four weeks away, so that means it is time to keep eyes on the bracket.

The NCAA selection committee unveiled their top 16 seeds in the first look at how the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket could look come next month, and the Arizona Wildcats find themselves in the mix at No. 12 overall and the third No. 3 seed.

The Wildcats (17-7, 11-2 Big 12) — despite losing to a hot Kansas State team last week — have been rolling since a 4-4 start to the season having gone 13-3 since then and currently sit near the top of the Big 12 standings and enter the weekend at No. 13 in the AP Top 25.

Despite being a bit away from the actual bracket reveal on March 16, the top 16 reveal has proven to be a good indicator of who the best four seeds in each region will be.

On a Friday edition of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast, CBS Sports reporter Matt Norlander noted how the early bracket reveal tends to be a good predictor.

For example, 89% of teams who appear in the first bracket end in the final 16 of the actual bracket come March. If a team appears on the one-, two- or three-seed line, there is a 92% chance that team will remain a top-four seed.

Now, a trend that should make Arizona fans a bit confident, on average 14 of 16 teams will remain the same. The teams are likely to change placements within the top 16, but generally there isn’t much movement in or out of the top 16.

Who joins the Arizona Wildcats

The full list of the top 16 seeds unveiled Saturday are: Auburn (1), Alabama (2), Duke (3), Florida (4), Tennessee (5), Texas A&M (6), Purdue (7), Houston (8), Iowa State (9), Kentucky (10), Wisconsin (11), Arizona (12), Texas Tech (13), Michigan (14), Kansas (15) and St. John’s (16).

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