Welcome back to Hoopville’s Bracket Breakdown Mock Tournament.

We’re gearing up for the run to Selection Sunday. Like last year, we waited a little longer than other media outlets to bring out our first bracket projections of the season. The rationale for waiting until roughly halfway through conference play is to get a large enough sample size to fairly evaluate teams and project conference winners.

With the field expanding to 68 teams this season, the evaluations of the final teams in the field are even more difficult this season. The first 36-40 teams in the field are fairly easy to identify, though seeding them in precise spots remains a challenge. However, after that, it’s tough to find another eight to 10 teams that are worthy of a bid. But someone has to get in. That’s why the field contains some borderline teams like Virginia Tech, Baylor and Memphis.

For now, we’re giving you the brackets in a straight-up S curve format. So the top team in each seeding is the closest to moving up while the bottom team is closest to slipping to a worse seed. We’re not taking into consideration locations, conference balance or other rules quite yet. So this projected field represents true power rankings of the teams that make the cut, free of the machinations forced by all the tournament rules. Of course, we’ll take a stab at projecting the actual match ups — rules and all — starting in March.

So let’s get to the brackets. As always, please share your thoughts.