The 2019 NCAA tournament bracket is officially out, so we can all spend the next three or four days poring over matchups, choosing upsets and making picks for Minneapolis. But before we get there, let's finish digesting the bracket with one last look at the NCAA tournament field. Who were the winners and losers from Selection Sunday? Tournament Challenge 2019 How's your bracket? Check out Tournament Challenge for live updates with a chance to win $10,000 in Amazon.com gift cards and a trip for two to the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational! WINNERS The ACC For the first time since 2009, one conference received three 1-seeds to the NCAA tournament. Not only did Duke, Virginia and North Carolina all get placed on a region's top line, they were also the top three teams in the field. The signs were there that this might happen once Gonzaga lost in the WCC title game and neither Kentucky nor Tennessee won the SEC tournament title. Duke was a winner Sunday. Did UNC also win by getting sent to the Kansas City Regional (where Kansas looms)? Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Duke secured its spot atop the bracket after Zion Williamson returned and the Blue Devils won the ACC tournament. Virginia was a lock 1-seed entering Champ Week, and North Carolina owned two wins over Duke and a victory over Gonzaga. The ACC wasn't the best conference in the country, but it had the three best teams in the country -- and it could have multiple Final Four teams in a few weeks. Markus Howard vs. Ja Morant I don't know if there's a true winner for this one, but it counts because we, as a society, are winners. Marquette's Howard and Murray State's Morant are two of the most exciting players in college basketball, with both players capable of going for 40-plus points on a given night. They go about it in different ways. Howard looks to get hot from 3-point range and can fire in a barrage of deep, contested jumpers. Morant is a freak athlete who gets into the lane and either scores on his own or finds a teammate. He was one of the nation's top scorers and led the country in assists. It's unclear whether Howard will actually guard Morant, but this will be arguably the most entertaining individual matchup of the first round. St. John's The Red Storm was the last team in the field, according to the committee. Chris Mullin's team overcame a horrible NET ranking, poor efficiency metrics and a below-average nonconference schedule to get a bid. For the Red Storm, it likely came down to the fact that they beat Marquette twice and knocked off Villanova once. This was once a team expected to be a lock come Selection Sunday, but it lost four of five down the stretch, including a 32-point pummeling by Marquette in the Big East tournament. It's now a clean slate for St. John's, though, and the team has the talent to win a game or two. Belmont Most of the bubble talk over the past several days surrounded the quartet of quality mid-majors that were bounced from their conference tournaments: Belmont, UNC Greensboro, Lipscomb and Furman. We'll get to UNCG in a bit, but Belmont ended up making the field -- and one has to wonder whether the Bruins' missing starting center Nick Muszynski for the Ohio Valley title game played a factor. Belmont's best wins came over Lipscomb (twice) and Murray State, but the Bruins lost just five games all season and tested themselves in nonconference play. Rick Byrd's team may be in Dayton for the First Four, but at least it's dancing. (For the record, Joe Lunardi had Belmont out and TCU in for the lone miss in this season's version of ESPN Bracketology.) Fran Dunphy In his final season as head coach at Temple, Dunphy and the Owls are going to the NCAA tournament. Temple's losing to Wichita State in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament left the Owls sweating on Selection Sunday, but wins over Houston and UCF were enough to get them to Dayton to face Belmont. Heck of a way to go out after 13 seasons on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. Pitino connection This is something of an honorable mention, but Minnesota's Richard Pitino facing Louisville -- the school that fired his father less than 18 months ago -- is a noteworthy thing to watch. The committee can say it doesn't pay attention to potential storylines when making first-round pairings, but I'm going to call its bluff on this one. LOSERS UNC Greensboro According to the committee, UNCG was the first team left out of the field -- getting bumped after Oregon won the Pac-12 title game over Washington on Saturday night. That's a heartbreaker for coach Wes Miller and the Spartans, who lost just six games all season. Those six losses came against Wofford (three times), Kentucky, LSU and at Furman. They didn't have a single loss outside Quadrant 1. For housekeeping purposes, the next three teams out of the field were Alabama, TCU and Indiana. Conference tournaments The bracket as a whole read a lot like a bracket that would have come out on Friday afternoon. Power-conference champions Villanova (6), Iowa State (6), Auburn (5) and Cincinnati (7) didn't seem to benefit much from their runs. Runners-up Florida State (4) and Seton Hall (10) essentially received the seeds they were expected to get going into the conference tournament. Meanwhile, VCU (8) lost in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament and did not seem to get penalized. Marquette (5) lost for the fifth time in six games and was seeded higher than Villanova, which won both the regular-season and conference tournaments. And Michigan State won the Big Ten conference tournament -- and regular season -- and was seeded as the 2-seed in overall top seed Duke's region. The Spartans completed a three-game sweep of Michigan, but the Wolverines -- also a 2-seed, but in Gonzaga's region -- arguably received an easier draw. Top three seeds in the Midwest North Carolina was probably thrilled to get a 1-seed ... until it saw Kansas as the 4-seed in its region. Not that the Jayhawks didn't deserve a 4-seed or are going to be favored over the Tar Heels, but if the two teams face each other in the Sweet 16, it will take place in Kansas City, less than an hour from Kansas' campus. The Jayhawks have been poor on the road this season, but this is about as close to a home game as Bill Self can get in the NCAA tournament. The other top-three seeds in this region, Kentucky and Houston, won't be happy if they have to play the Jayhawks in the Elite Eight. And as for the Tar Heels, this might be the cost of that loss to Duke in the ACC semifinals. Tennessee Along those same lines, if Tennessee and Cincinnati win their first-round games, the Volunteers will likely be unhappy to face the Bearcats in Columbus, Ohio. That won't be fun for Rick Barnes' team. Dreadful nonconference schedules We're looking at you, NC State. The committee made a clear statement about the Wolfpack's nonconference schedule, not even including them among the first four teams left out of the field. NC State had the No. 353-ranked nonconference strength of schedule, last in the country. The Wolfpack looked like they would overcome the poor non-league slate earlier in the season, but combine it with a lack of impressive wins and a 9-9 ACC record, and Kevin Keatts' team was left out. This isn't a first for the committee. Time and time again, it has sent messages by leaving out teams that played weak nonconference schedules. Despite NC State's impressive NET -- it was the highest-ranked team in the NET not to make the field -- it did not hear its name called on Selection Sunday. Expanded conference schedules Power conferences are playing more games than ever nowadays, and it might have cost them some bids on Selection Sunday.<doc-sep>Thirty-two teams will earn automatic bids to the 2019 women's NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournaments. Who will take home the crown in each league? espnW's women's college basketball experts made their picks below, with conferences listed in the order that tickets will be punched. Be sure to track all the auto bids and conference tournament winners. And keep up to date on bracketology projections right up until Selection Monday on March 18 (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).<doc-sep>Can someone crash the Valencia/Hall party at 174 this year? Can someone crash the Valencia/Hall party at 174 this year? INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced the qualifier allocations for the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships as listed in the chart below. Each qualifying tournament was awarded automatic bids per weight class based on current year data. Each wrestler was measured on the following: Division I winning percentage at the weight class; ratings percentage index (RPI); and coaches’ ranking. POWER RANKINGS: Penn State still dominates, OSU's Nick Piccininni moves up For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA tournament spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at the tournament based solely on place-finish. After all of the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 44 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 12, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 6 p.m. on March 13. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers. The at-large selections will be made based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition; quality wins; coaches’ ranking; results against common opponents; RPI; qualifying event placement; and winning percentage. Conference 125 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 285 Total Atlantic Coast Conference 2 4 4 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 37 Big 12 Conference 5 5 6 7 1 6 5 5 7 6 53 Big Ten Conference 9 8 9 6 9 9 8 8 5 7 78 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association 4 4 3 5 6 4 5 6 6 4 47 Eastern Wrestling League 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 14 Mid-American Conference 4 3 4 1 5 1 2 2 1 4 27 Pacific-12 Conference 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 17 Southern Conference 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 13 TOTAL QUALIFIERS 29 29 29 28 29 29 27 29 28 29 286 The coaches’ rankings are compiled by a vote of coaches representing each conference. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. To be eligible for the rankings, wrestlers must have participated in at least five matches against Division I opponents in the weight class and have wrestled within the last 30 days. To be eligible for an RPI ranking, a wrestler must have a minimum of 17 Division I matches at a given weight class. For a full list of the coaches rankings by weight class please click here. For the full RPI please click here. Sebastian Rivera of Northwestern (125 pounds), Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State (165), Mark Hall of Penn State (174) and Myles Martin of Ohio State (184) are all ranked No. 1 by both the coaches and in the RPI. RIVALRY WIN: Oklahoma State takes down Iowa 27-12 in huge regular season finale The remaining top ranked wrestlers by the coaches are Stevan Micic of Michigan (133), Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell (141), Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers (149), Jason Nolf of Penn State (157), Bo Nickal of Penn State (197) and Gable Steveson of Minnesota (285). The remaining top-rated wrestlers in the RPI include Daton Fix of Oklahoma State (133), Joey McKenna of Ohio State (141), Matthew Kolodzik of Princeton (149), Ryan Deakin of Northwestern (157), Kollin Moore of Ohio State (197) and Derek White of Oklahoma State (285). LEGACY: 13 college wrestling head coaches who had the best NCAA wrestling careers The 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships takes place at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh March 21-23. Wrestling fans can buy and sell official tickets through the NCAA Ticket Exchange™. This gives ticket holders who are unable to attend a session a place to safely sell their tickets. Buyers can also get their tickets knowing the tickets are authentic and guaranteed, visit https://www.ncaa.com/tickets/wrestling/d1 for more information. A full description of the entire selection process is in the 2019 Division I Wrestling Championships Pre-Championships Manual which is available at NCAA.org.<doc-sep>
Selection Sunday for the 2019 NCAA men's college basketball tournament is here. All 32 conference champions have punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. The race for the No. 1 seeds is over — it's all up to the selection committee at this point. Will the ACC get three No. 1 seeds? That's the big question. Sporting News will update these projections as the conference tournament action unfolds. SN's MARCH MADNESS HQ Official NCAA Tournament bracket field | Printable bracket (* Denotes automatic bid that has clinched a tournament berth). March Madness 2019 bracket projections Projected No. 1 seeds Gonzaga 30-3 Duke 29-5 (ACC*) Virginia 29-3 North Carolina 27-6 Lowdown: Three No. 1 seeds out of the ACC? That seems to be the best bet after Duke won the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils and Cavaliers will be No. 1 seeds. The only question is whether the committee takes North Carolina Michigan State. Projected No. 2 seeds Tennessee 29-5 Michigan State 27-6 (Big Ten*) Michigan 28-5 Kentucky 27-6 Lowdown: These are the leftovers from the No. 1 line. Michigan State has the best case for a No. 1 among the group. The Spartans have a regular-season and conference tournament championship. CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT BRACKETS: ACC | Big 12 | Big East | Big Ten | Pac-12 | SEC | WCC | AAC Projected No. 3 seeds Houston 31-3 LSU 26-6 Texas Tech 26-6 Florida State 27-6 Lowdown: Houston lost the AAC tournament, but that likely won't affect their seeding much. Florida State should be on this line ahead of Big Ten regular-season champion Purdue. Projected No. 4 seeds Kansas 25-8 Purdue 24-8 Kansas State 24-8 Auburn 26-9 (SEC*) Lowdown: Of course, Kansas is in position to grab the automatic bid in the Big 12. Florida State also can jump up a line if it beats Duke in the ACC championship game. The Seminoles showed in the victory against Virginia why they are one of the hottest teams in the country. Projected No. 5 seeds Iowa State 23-11 (Big 12*) Virginia Tech 24-8 Wisconsin 23-10 Villanova 25-9 (Big East*) Lowdown: The Cyclones shot up the board with a Big 12 conference tournament championship. Projected No. 6 seeds Marquette 24-9 Maryland 22-10 Cincinnati 28-6 (American*) Buffalo 31-3 (MAC*) Lowdown: Buffalo should be a No. 4 or No. 5, but this is where we think they will end up. Cincinnati does not have a great KenPom ranking, but the Houston win presented an opportunity to move up to that No. 5 line. MORE: When does March Madness start? Projected No. 7 seeds Mississippi State 23-10 Nevada 29-4 Wofford 29-4 (Southern*) Iowa 21-11 Lowdown: Nevada takes the biggest hit for not winning its conference tournament, which likely puts it on the same line as Wofford, which did. The Terriers have a case to be a No. 6. Projected No. 8 seeds Washington 26-8 VCU 25-7 Minnesota 21-13 Syracuse 22-11 Lowdown: Washington didn't win the Pac-12 tournament, which opened the league up for a second bid with Oregon. That also cost the Huskies any chance of seed respect. They could be lower. Rest of field No. 9: UCF 23-8, N.C. State 22-11, Baylor 19-13, Ole Miss 20-12 No. 10: Murray State 27-4 (Ohio Valley*), Utah State 28-6 (MWC*), Louisville 20-13, St. John's 21-12 No. 11: Belmont 26-5, Arizona State 22-10, New Mexico St. 30-4 (WAC*), Oregon 23-12 (Pac-12*) No. 12: Saint Mary's 21-11 (West Coast*), St. Louis 23-12 (Atlantic 10*), Ohio State 19-14, Temple 23-9, Florida 19-15, Seton Hall 20-12 No. 13: Liberty 28-6 (Atlantic Sun*), Northeastern 23-10 (Colonial*), Vermont 27-6 (America East*), UC-Irvine 29-5 (Big West*) No. 14: Northern Kentucky 26-8 (Horizon*), Georgia State 24-9 (Sun Belt*), Yale 22-7 (Ivy*), Old Dominion 26-8 (C-USA*) No. 15: Bradley 20-14 (Missouri Valley*), Colgate 24-10 (Patriot*), Montana 26-8 (Big Sky*), Abilene Christian 27-6 (Southland*) No. 16: Fairleigh Dickinson 20-13 (Northeast*), Iona 16-15 (MAAC*), Gardner-Webb 23-11 (Big South*), North Dakota State 18-15 (Summit*), North Carolina Central 18-15 (MEAC*), Prairie View A&M 21-12 (SWAC*) Bubble teams Oklahoma 19-13, Clemson 19-13, TCU 20-13, Alabama 18-15, South Carolina 16-16, Dayton 21-11, Xavier 18-15, Georgetown 19-13, UNC-Greensboro 28-6; Lipscomb 25-7; Indiana 17-15; Creighton 18-14, Texas 15-15