It has been four months since our first 2013 NCAA tournament bracket was released, and it's just two months until Midnight Madness in October.
So you might ask, with no games played during that span, how can any bracket projection change? Let us count the ways. For a reference point, you can open the new bracket here.
1) Movement among the favorites
Starting at the top, we see changes in the No. 1 overall seed (Louisville Cardinals replace the Indiana Hoosiers) as well as within the full group of No. 1 seeds (UCLA Bruins up, Kansas Jayhawks down). The truth, as outlined in April, is that we're looking at a very weak collection of potential top seeds in 2013. So a tiny shift -- such as Louisville getting healthier or having a bit more depth than Indiana -- is enough to sway the S-Curve.
UCLA vaults to No. 3 overall following the spring commitments of Shabazz Muhammad and Tony Parker, giving the Bruins the nation's best recruiting class, according to ESPNU. The Kentucky Wildcats stay on the top line with their second-ranked national class, dropping Kansas to No. 5 overall and a No. 2 seed in the bracket.
To read the full story on how the early 2013 bracket has changed, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Joe Lunardi | email
Senior Writer, ESPN.com- Resident college basketball bracketologist for ESPN
- Contributor to SportsCenter, ESPN Insider
- Published first public bracket in 1995
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Fran Fraschilla is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at New Mexico, St. John's and Manhattan.
Joe Lunardi is the resident bracketologist for ESPN.
Seth Greenberg is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at Virginia Tech, South Florida and Long Beach State.
