Each February, about a month before Selection Sunday, the men’s NCAA tournament selection committee offers a snapshot of its top 16 teams.
The in-season reveal often turns out to be a good barometer of what the top of the bracket will look like when the actual field is unveiled.
Of the 96 teams that appeared in the in-season brackets, 80 have remained a top-four seed on Selection Sunday. At least three of the four No. 1 seeds in every in-season reveal have also retained their place on the actual bracket’s top seed line. Those numbers exclude 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament days before Selection Sunday.