Folks, we finally got what we've been asking for. A prominent bracketologist is finally coming around to showing respect for Tom Izzo and Michigan State.
For over a week now, Joe Lunardi had been the harshest bracketologist on the Spartans. He had Michigan State as a 4-seed entering last week's two-game road stretch against Purdue and Indiana, and even after beating the then-projected 2-seeded Boilermakers, he kept the Spartans on that four line.
Shortly after beating Indiana, everyone expected a nightly bracket update, and it just didn't come. Everyone kind of expected him to continue to praise Illinois and Purdue over the Spartans.
Well, he finally cracked.
In his latest top four seed bracket projection, Lunardi listed Michigan State as a 2-seed and the No. 7 overall team in the field. For weeks, he had Michigan State locked in to that 13-14 range, but the good fight is finally over. We can stop sub-tweeting about the ESPN bracketologist now until he drops MSU a line for not beating Rutgers by 50.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 2, 2026
All jokes aside, this latest bracket update is the closest we've seen to what the actual top four seeds might look like when Selection Sunday rolls around in two weeks.
With two regular-season games remaining in the final week, all signs are pointing to these teams pretty much remaining fairly close to the current projections by dozens of bracketologists.
Other bracketologists agree about Michigan State as a 2-seed
I wrote about two prominent college hoops experts saying that Michigan State should be a 2-seed on Sunday night. That really paved the way for several bracketologists to follow suit with their projections. When the numbers guys say Michigan State is a 2-seed, you're more inclined to believe it.
The eye test is also on Michigan State's side lately.
The Spartans are playing some of their best basketball of the season right now, beating UCLA, Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana in four straight games. Those could all be tournament teams at the end of the day, so that's a pretty impressive stretch, especially with arguably the two toughest on the road.
We're going to start seeing more and more bracketologists project the Spartans as a 2-seed as the season winds down. A win in Ann Arbor on Sunday could make things really interesting.