We are still nearly four months away from the start of the 2026-27 college basketball season, but that hasn't stopped ESPN's Joe Lunardi from making projections for the next version of the NCAA Tournament, which is eight months from now.

Lunardi released his first version of 'bracketology' for the new campaign on Tuesday, which seems like a futile exercise this far in advance, but hey, fans are always itching to see where their teams will land and what the expectations should be.

For fans of UConn? They'll likely be disappointed, as Lunardi has them earning a No. 3 seed in the tournament, lower than this past season's No. 2. The Huskies advanced to the NCAA title game, losing to No. 1 Michigan. UConn has been to the championship in three of the last four years, winning two of them.

Regardless of how you feel about the seed projection for the Huskies, it's important to note that the NCAA Tournament will be bigger moving forward. It's now at 76 teams, up from 68.

The currently named "First Four" will expand to 12 games, featuring 24 teams before the first Thursday of the tournament.

Those 12 winners will advance into the traditional tournament bracket, giving us the 64 teams that we are accustomed to on the first Thursday of the event. 

For the basic math of it all:

76 teams in the tournament. 

24 playing in the "First 12"

52 teams not playing in the "First 12"

52 non-playing teams + 12 winners = 64 team traditional bracket

Well, for starters, it's clearly possible that Lunardi sees this version of the Huskies as worse than last year's version. And without Tarris Reed Jr. and Karaban (NBA), and without Solo Ball (injury), that might be possible.

However, head coach Dan Hurley will certainly do his best to keep his program's level up, and he's brought in a number of transfers that could have an impact alongside Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary Jr.

And then there's the schedule aspect: UConn is playing one of, if not the, hardest schedules in college basketball history, complete with the likes of Duke, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio State and Michigan. 

If the Huskies win most, or all, of those games? Then they'll clearly be ticketed for the No. 1 line. But if they falter in those matchups? Then it's easy to see how they could slide down the seed line.

But as they say: That's why they play the games.

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