About six hours prior to tip-off in a top-three showdown with No. 3 Duke — and likely the premier non-conference college basketball game of the season — the Michigan Wolverines were named the No. 1 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA March Madness Bracket Preview show on CBS.
The other No. 1 seeds as of today are the aforementioned Blue Devils, the Arizona Wildcats and the Iowa State Cyclones, with AP-ranked No. 2 Houston outside of the initial top-four teams. Interestingly enough, Houston and Arizona play each other today at 3 p.m., making today one of the best days of college basketball in recent memory and a possible Final Four preview between that and Michigan vs Duke at 6:30 p.m.
Last season, three of the No. 1 seeds in the early bracket reveal remained a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday. Going a step further, only two teams from last year’s early bracket reveal — Michigan (No. 4 to No. 5 seed) and Kansas (No. 4 to No. 7) — dropped out of the top four seeds by the time Selection Sunday rolled around.
No matter what Michigan does from here on out, it has a great shot at being among the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament. The schedule doesn’t get any easier after today — matchups at Illinois, at Iowa and vs Michigan State, along with the Big Ten Tournament, still loom — but this team has been battle tested all season long and have come out victorious much more often than not.
Selection Sunday is already less than a month away. We will know the entire NCAA Tournament field soon enough, as that show on CBS will start around 6 p.m. on March 15.