Longtime ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi released an updated 2025 bracketology on Tuesday and he’s much lower on the Blue Devils than he was months ago.
When Lunardi released his first field projection for next year’s March Madness, the Blue Devils took the top overall spot in the field. In the two months since, however, other teams like Kansas and Alabama made some splashes in the transfer portal to boot Jon Scheyer’s team down a peg.
Not only has Duke lost the top overall spot, the Blue Devils are now down to the No. 2 seed in the East region.
The Jayhawks, the Crimson Tide, Houston, and two-time defending national champion Connecticut took the four top lines in Lunardi’s new projections.
With the Pac-12 gone from the top conferences, the remaining Power 4 conferences will get an alarming number of teams in the tournament next season. Lunardi had seven ACC teams (and 10 SEC schools!) in his early bracket.
Men's Bracketology: 2025 NCAA Tournament https://t.co/146SOUv6MW. 🏀🏀 The disappearance of the Pac-12 from the national landscape will have ramifications across the country and across every sport. But from a Bracketology perspective, there is really only one question: Who will…
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) June 18, 2024
North Carolina (No. 3 seed), Miami (No. 8), Wake Forest (No. 9), Clemson (No. 10), Louisville (First Four), and Pittsburgh (First Four) also made the bracket from the conference.