Bracketology: Kentucky is now a No. 1 seed at the onset of a busy week

A new top seed, a pair of changes on the two line, and two new at-large entrants are the biggest changes to this week’s bracket when compared to Friday’s effort.

After Kentucky‘s demolition of Arkansas on Saturday and UCLA‘s relatively pedestrian wins over California and Stanford, the pair flip places. However, the Wildcats and Bruins are tantalizingly poised for a rematch in this bracket’s West Regional final. UK sits fourth overall behind Villanova, the poll’s new No. 1 Baylor, and Kansas (who the Cats just happen to host on Jan. 28). Meanwhile, UCLA anchors a two line that also features Butler, Florida State (who replaces ACC rival Duke, for the moment at least), and Oregon.

Cal and Texas Tech slide into this projection, replacing a North Carolina State team embarrassed at North Carolina on Sunday afternoon and Illinois, now 1-2 in the Big Ten following a dispiriting performance at Indiana one day earlier.

But things could look significantly different in a week’s time. More on that after the full bracket and rundown (today with the correct number of Big East teams listed).

The slate for the next seven days might just produce the drama league play has yet to really provide. Let’s go league by league.

ACC: For starters, new No. 2 seed Florida State hosts the team it replaced, Duke, on Tuesday with the Blue Devils missing Amile Jefferson due to a foot injury. Tipping an hour earlier, Syracuse, a team that would be out of the picture entirely in any season other than this one, visits a Virginia Tech squad that’s dropped two in a row. On Wednesday, Pittsburgh travels to Louisville, while Notre Dame visits Miami one night later. But those games are just the appetizer for Saturday, which features Duke-Louisville, Miami-Pitt, Virginia-Clemson, FSU-North Carolina, and Notre Dame-Virginia Tech — all before the sun sets.

American Athletic: Cincinnati and SMU are this conference’s lone representatives in this projection. They’ll meet Thursday at Fifth Third Bank Arena.

Big East: Myles Davis returns for Xavier, just in time for the Musketeers to visit Villanova! Wednesday, the other half of the league’s top four, Butler and Creighton, meet for the first time this season in Omaha. (And the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, Seton Hall at Marquette, is a vital game for both’s at-large hopes.) While Creighton and Villanova will play winnable games on Saturday, Xavier and Butler face each other at Hinkle.

Big 12: You will definitely want to have multiple screens at the ready tonight, as the first challenge for the nation’s new top team is a trip to Morgantown to take on West Virginia and its suffocating defense. Good luck, Baylor! The Bears then visit Kansas State, a team in dire need of a quality win, on Saturday. (The Wildcats visit Texas Tech, the very last team in this bracket, tonight.)

C-USA: Middle Tennessee hangs on as an at-large today, thanks in part to the fact Marshall is a half-game up on them in the league standings. That will change on Thursday night, however, as the Blue Raiders welcome the Thundering Herd to Murfreesboro.

Pac-12: Well, this conference doesn’t have any titanic matchups on the slate, but if the Mountain schools — Colorado and Utah — want to get back into the hunt, they’ll need to defend their home floors this week, as UCLA and USC Trojans visit.

SEC: Similarly, the SEC slate is relatively thin this week, other than a bubble battle between Georgia and Ole Miss on Wednesday and follow-up road games for the Bulldogs (Florida) and Rebels (South Carolina) on Saturday.

WCC: Provided Gonzaga takes care of business at home against Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary’s wins at Portland Pilots on Thursday, the Bulldogs and Gaels will meet in Spokane on Saturday night with first place on the line.

In other words, if you don’t like where your favorite team is, just wait a week. I’ll be back on Friday with an early big-picture analysis of the hopes for each of the likely multi-bid leagues.