Michigan State basketball projected as 7-seed by Joe Lunardi

We are just a little over a week away from the start of the 2024-25 Michigan State basketball season and Joe Lunardi is already putting out his way-too-early bracketology.

The ESPN bracketologist released his early field of 68 and Michigan State made the cut.

According to Lunardi's projections, Michigan State is going to be a 7-seed and he has the Spartans in the South Region, playing the first two rounds in Milwaukee. The first-round matchup would be against 10-seed Ole Miss and if the Spartans win they'd face 2-seeded Iowa State in the second round. Of course, North Carolina is also in that region as the No. 3 seed and Alabama is the No. 1 seed.

Other Big Ten teams to make Lunardi's bracket projections are:

Purdue (No. 4 Midwest)
UCLA (No. 6 Midwest)
Illinois (No. 6 East)
Indiana (No. 6 West)
Michigan (No. 8 East)
Oregon (No. 9 Midwest)
Ohio State (No. 9 South)
Maryland (No. 10 West)
Rutgers (No. 11 South - First Four)

Lunardi also has Wisconsin and Iowa as the "first four out" and Northwestern in that "next four out" category. So 13 of the 18 Big Ten teams will be flirting with the NCAA Tournament and 10 would officially make it, per the expert bracketologist.

Michigan State could surprise some people this season with a good balance of veterans and young stars ready to take that next step. Being the fifth-highest seeded team in the conference seems about right, but I wouldn't be shocked to see the Spartans be somewhere in that top-three range in the conference.

Don't count Tom Izzo out.