Spencer Parlier | NCAA.com | September 30, 2020 Andy Katz makes his first 2021 NCAA bracket for March Madness Andy Katz makes his first 2021 NCAA bracket prediction for March Madness Share College hoops is almost back and it's time for our first look ahead to what the 2021 NCAA tournament field might look like. The season begins Nov. 25 and NCAA.com basketball expert Andy Katz has released his first projected bracket for 2021 March Madness. Here are his top 10 seeds, or first ten in, which be breaks down on this week's March Madness 365 podcast: Gonzaga Baylor Villanova Illinois Iowa Wisconsin Virginia Kansas Kentucky Tennessee As we all know, there aren’t just 10 teams in the NCAA tournament, so let’s break down the rest of Katz’s preseason March Madness field: Andy Katz's first preseason 2021 NCAA tournament bracket Seed West Midwest South East 1 Gonzaga Illinois Baylor Villanova 16 NC Central/E. Washington Praire View A&M/St. Francis Pa. Colgate Vermont 8 Seton Hall Providence Florida Purdue 9 LSU Northern Iowa UConn Saint Louis 5 Indiana UCLA Michigan Texas 12 Louisville/SDSU St. John's/Cincinnati Iona Yale 4 Arizona State Texas Tech Creighton Rutgers 13 New Mexico State Stephen F. Austin Liberty ETSU 6 Stanford Houston Florida State West Virginia 11 BYU Georgia Tech Belmont Colorado 3 Michigan State Tennessee Kentucky Duke 14 Hofstra Akron North Texas Little Rock 7 North Carolina Richmond Oregon Alabama 10 Boise State Ohio State Oklahoma Memphis 2 Kansas Virginia Wisconsin Iowa 15 UC Irvine Winthrop NDSU Wright State Now, let's take a closer look at some of the highlights. Gonzaga, Baylor, Villanova and Illinois are Katz's No. 1 seeds Those are Katz's picks, right now, for the top seeds. Three of them are easy picks as the No. 1 team headed into this season, according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi. “This is the year where I think you can vote any of three teams as the preseason No. 1 — Baylor, Villanova, Gonzaga, in whatever order you want,” Lunardi told Katz on this week’s podcast. For the fourth No. 1 spot, Katz went with the Fighting Illini. Katz has the Illini automatically qualifying by winning the Big Ten tournament. Illinois gets the nod over projected No. 2 seeds Iowa, a team led by preseason national Player of the Year favorite Luka Garza, and Kansas, a team that returns last season’s Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Garret. DON'T MISS: NCAA's Gavitt, Holzman plan on having tournament fields, sites as scheduled All four No. 1 seeds bring back a solid core of players. Gonzaga is led by the returning Corey Kispert. The Zags will also bring in highly-touted freshman Jalen Suggs. Baylor returns potential Big 12 Player of the Year Jared Butler. Villanova will be led by veteran point guard Collin Gillespie as well as return most of its core from last season. And the Illini will return stars Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn — two of the main reasons Katz is so high on Illinois. COACH SPEAK: 7 insights from John Calipari, Mark Few and Tom Izzo on college hoops in 2020 Along with Iowa and Kansas, Wisconsin and Virginia, Katz’s favorite to win the ACC, also join the No. 2 line. Although regular-season scheduling is still to be determined, especially non-conference games, there is a chance we will see conference foes like Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, as well as Baylor and Kansas face each other at least once this year. Who's on Katz's bubble, right now Katz went beyond the field of 68 to make some predictions on the bubble for the upcoming season. First Four out: Dayton Clemson NC State Utah Next four out: Auburn Arizona Arkansas SMU Andy Katz's field of 68 Here is Katz’s full seed list in order: RANK TEAM SEED 1 Gonzaga 1 2 Baylor 1 3 Villanova 1 4 Illinois 1 5 Iowa 2 6 Wisconsin 2 7 Virginia 2 8 Kansas 2 9 Kentucky 3 10 Tennessee 3 11 Duke 3 12 Michigan State 3 13 Rutgers 4 14 Arizona State 4 15 Texas Tech 4 16 Creighton 4 17 Michigan 5 18 Indiana 5 19 UCLA 5 20 Texas 5 21 Florida State 6 22 Houston 6 23 West Virginia 6 24 Stanford 6 25 Richmond 7 26 North Carolina 7 27 Oregon 7 28 Alabama 7 29 Providence 8 30 Florida 8 31 Seton Hall 8 32 Purdue 8 33 UConn 9 34 Northern Iowa 9 35 LSU 9 36 Saint Louis 9 37 Oklahoma 10 38 BYU 10 39 Ohio State 10 40 Boise State 10 41 Memphis 11 42 Georgia Tech 11 43 Colorado 11 44 Belmont 11 45 Louisville 12 46 San Diego State 12 47 St. John's 12 48 Cincinnati 12 49 Yale 12 50 Iona 12 51 New Mexico State 13 52 Liberty 13 53 Stephen F. Austin 13 54 East Tennessee State 13 55 Akron 14 56 Hofstra 14 57 Little Rock 14 58 North Texas 14 59 UC Irvine 15 60 Winthrop 15 61 North Dakota State 15 62 Wright State 15 63 Vermont 16 64 Colgate 16 65 North Carolina Central 16 66 Eastern Washington 16 67 Prairie View A&M 16 68 St. Francis, Pa 16 College basketball: What is the Jimmy V Classic? Here's what you need to know about the Jimmy V Classic, which is inspired by former North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN commentator Jim Valvano and his fight against cancer. READ MORE 7 programs with strong cases to be college basketball's next 1st-time champion These schools have never won a men's basketball national championship — for now. READ MORE Schools with the most DI women's basketball national championships UConn has more DI women's college basketball titles than any other program. Here's a look at the women’s basketball teams that have won two or more national championships. READ MORE