Villanova Bracketology: Tournament Expansion Means Way-Too-Early Predictions

With news breaking on Thursday, May 7 that the NCAA Tournament will expand to 76 teams beginning in 2027, a new wave of bracket projections dropped to accommodate the new-look tournament.

Projections from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and the NCAA’s Andy Katz both included Villanova Men’s Basketball alone among the Big 5. However, the two analysts gave wildly different appraisals of the Wildcats. Lunardi predicted Villanova to earn a No. 7 seed in the Fort Worth Regional, setting them up to face UCLA in the first round — an intriguing matchup between two friends in their respective head coaches, Kevin Willard and Mick Cronin.

Katz, on the other hand, sees the Wildcats as a fringe at-large candidate, predicting that they’ll face West Virginia in a battle of No. 12 seeds in the recently-expanded opening round.

Villanova still has six open spots on their roster and needs a center and a backup point guard. Once they’ve completed their team, they could surge up both Katz and Lunardi’s rankings. Analyst Evan Miyakawa, for example, predicts that they’ll end up in the top 20 with a complete roster.

Tournament expansion will also prove a boon for the Big East, with both Lunardi and Katz predicting that six of the league’s 11 teams will make the Big Dance; Katz sees the Wildcats as the lowest-seeded of those six, while Lunardi rates them third behind UConn and St. John’s.

ESPN’s Charlie Creme, who handles the women’s tournament projections, last updated his forecast for Villanova on April 28, predicting that they’ll earn a No. 7 seed.