Auburn could likely face Samford in NCAA tournament

As conference tournaments draw to a close, the 2023-2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament field is set to be finalized within the next 72 hours. The March Madness bracket will be revealed on Sunday, March 17th, with the selection show starting at 5 p.m. on CBS.

As of Friday afternoon, three Alabama programs have secured bids: Alabama, Auburn, and Samford. Pending conference tournament results, two more local teams could join them.

UAB and Alabama A&M are both alive in their respective conference tourneys. The Blazers take on Wichita State in the American quarterfinals today at 2 p.m., while the Bulldogs play in the SWAC semifinals tonight at 8:30 p.m.

UAB will spend the entire week in Dallas, while each of A&M’s games will be hosted at Birmingham’s Bartow Arena.

North Alabama, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, South Alabama, and Troy have all been eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention.

UNA fell just short in an effort to secure its first March Madness bid in program history, losing to Austin Peay in the ASUN semifinals. Troy, looking to appear in its first tournament since 2017, was eliminated by Texas State in the Sun Belt quarterfinals. JSU, USA, and Alabama State each dropped their postseason openers.

Per bracketmatritwitter.com, a service that aggregates bracket projections from nearly 100 websites, Alabama and Auburn will likely be four seeds, while Samford is almost certain to be a 13 seed. The Bulldogs’ impressive 29-5 record puts them above most mid-majors, but Samford is unlikely to rise to a 12 or 11 seed, limited by their underwhelming non-conference resume and middling strength of schedule.

If UAB were to win their conference tournament, the Blazers would receive a 13 seed, while Alabama A&M would receive a 16 seed if they won theirs.

A recent bracketology update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi predicts that Auburn will meet Samford in the round of 64. It would stand as the second time in three years the Tigers faced an in-state foe on the tournament’s opening weekend — they defeated Jacksonville State in 2022.

Bracketmatritwitter.com pegs Samford as the team Auburn is most likely to play in the first round.

here's my biggest Bracket Matrix refresh to date for Auburn, with more than 100 projections updated in the last day or so

the Tigers are still widely expected to be a No. 4 seed going to Spokane for the first weekend

Samford and UC Irvine continue to be popular first round foes pic.twitter.com/50ow6Ak4Fx

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) March 14, 2024

It is also possible, although less likely, that Alabama faces Samford in the round of 64. The Crimson Tide haven’t faced an in-state team in March since they lost to South Alabama in the first round of the 1989 tournament.

Charles Vaughan is a sports analyst and contributing writer for Yellowhammer News.