The NCAA tournament we lost last season has been found — and will be different than any previous such event.
The realities of the coronavirus pandemic mean the 2021 NCAA tournament will be held at a single destination – the state of Indiana – with multiple venues utilized and the usual tournament schedule adjusted. The Final Four is slated to be held at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 3 and 5, but uncertainty will continue to reign following a regular season characterized by numerous cancellations and postponements throughout college basketball.
What is expected to remain familiar is the selection of a 68-team field, which is where Joe Lunardi comes in. Joey Brackets will continue to perform the bracket math and make projections on the field until Selection Sunday on March 14. For a deeper look at the NCAA tournament bubble, visit John Gasaway’s Bubble Watch (ESPN+) . To fill out a Tournament Challenge bracket, visit ESPN Tournament Challenge . — ESPN college basketball staff
Bracket Watch
For a perfect illustration of the truism that teams — not conferences — earn bids, we offer up Syracuse and the ACC. Both, by their generally lofty standards, have suffered through mediocre seasons. But the team (Syracuse) has gotten hot at an optimal time and the conference is somehow turning its lack of high-quality teams into a quantity of midlevel NCAA bids. The Orange, almost inconceivably, are the eighth ACC team in the projected field. And, don’t look now, but Duke is closing fast.
