The Belmont Bruins were March Madness staples a decade ago but have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2019, their final season under longtime head coach Rick Byrd. Now they are the clear favorites to stake claim to the Missouri Valley Conference's automatic bid, and also have a legitimate at-large case to boot.

That phrasing grants the committee some leeway to produce a bracket that contains potential Round of 32 rematches between the litany of projected NCAA Tournament teams that played each other in a historic November/December for college basketball.

FOX Sports' bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy offers up his latest men's NCAA Tournament projections.

Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin explains why the SEC is so tough and why conference play impacts NCAA tournament seeding.

The Auburn Tigers face multiple extremely winnable games down the stretch of the regular season.