Now that the regular season has concluded and conference tournament play is set to begin this week, new bracketology rankings have been released to give an early look at what the March Madness bracket could look like.
In recent weeks, the Alabama Crimson Tide has experienced an up-and-down stretch, suffering back-to-back losses against Tennessee and Florida, two of the top teams in the nation. They closed the season with a big matchup at Auburn before entering tournament play.
After Alabama upset Auburn on Senior night, CBS Sports' bracketology expert Jerry Palm released an updated bracket prediction, slotting Alabama as the No. 2 seed in the East region.
In Palm's prediction, the Crimson Tide share a region with the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils and a surging No. 3 seed St. John's. This region could be one of the most competitive, given the quality of the top few seeds this season.
The East region also features formidable teams such as No. 7 BYU and No. 9 Gonzaga, setting the stage for potential wild upsets this March.
Mark Sears, averaging 19.2 points per game, will need to play a pivotal role if Alabama hopes to make a deep tournament run. They certainly have their work cut out for them if this prediction becomes reality.
SEC tournament play begins on Wednesday, but Alabama has a double bye and will await the winner of Kentucky vs. Oklahoma/Georgia. The Tide will be looking to carry momentum into what promises to be an exciting postseason.
More must-reads:
Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs have added another stud defender to their 2026 recruiting class. Four-star defensive lineman Athony Lonon Jr. announced his decision to commit to the Bulldogs over Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon. Lonon Jr. is the son of former Bulldogs football player Anthony Lonon Sr., who played in Athens during the 90s. Lonon, who plays high school ball right down the road from Sanford Stadium at Clarke Central, is ranked No. 288 nationally, No. 35 among defensive linemen, and No. 35 overall in the state of Georgia. “Born in Athens, raised by Dawgs. True pure bred!" Lonon said right after announcing his pledge to Georgia. Georgia Bulldogs 2026 Commits Georgia currently boasts the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class and has 31 players committed to their recruiting class of 2026: 4-star EDGE Khamari Brooks 4-star Defensive Lineman Valdine Sone 4-star Tight End Brayden Fogle 4-star Defensive Lineman Pierre Dean 4-star Defensive Lineman Preston Cary 4-star Defensive Lineman PJ Dean 4-star Cornerback Chace Calicut 4-star Wide Receiver Craig Dandridge 4-star Running Back Jae Lamar 4-star Linebacker Shadarius Toodle 4-star Offensive Tackle Ekene Ogbok 4-star Cornerback Caden Harris 5-starKicker Harran Zureikat 5-Star Punt Returner Wade Register 4-star Offensive Lineman Zykie Helton 5-star Tight End Kaiden Prothro 4-star Cornerback Justin Fitzpatrick 4-star Safety Tyriq Green 4-star Defensive Lineman Carter Luckie 4-star Wide Receiver Ryan Mosely 4-star Safety Jordan Smith 5-star Quarterback Jared Curtis 4-star Defensive Lineman Anthony Lonon Jr. 3-star Offensive Tackle Graham Houston 3-star EDGE Corey Howard 3-star Offensive Lineman Zachary Lewis 4-star Tight End Lincoln Keys 3-starSafety Kealan Jones 3-star Defensive Lineman Seven Cloud 4-star Safety Zech Fort 3-star Wide Receiver Brady Marchese
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio was tearing it up in July before he strained his hamstring legging out a triple. He was placed on the injured list, and it only got worse from there. Less than 24 hours later, manager Pat Murphy said Chourio would be out beyond the 10-day minimum and possibly at least a month. On Saturday, beat reporter Curt Hogg shed another tidbit of light on the slugger’s timetable. It’s not necessarily worse news, but Hogg’s update probably does not illuminate much. Fans already knew Chourio was going to be out a while after Friday’s report, so this latest info isn’t surprising. It isn’t all that encouraging, either. It certainly suggests no expedited return schedule. Not to make assumptions, but the emphasis on the location of the damage versus evaluating its severity seems to indicate the Brewers are just hoping Chourio avoided a worse-case scenario. In that case, caution would indeed be first in the order of operations. Only after ascertaining clarity would it make sense to seriously estimate a recovery timetable. That he won’t be ready to immediately resume baseball workouts further points to a slow, methodical recovery process. For however long he remains out, the lineup will miss him badly. Chourio’s 17 home runs rank second on the team behind Christian Yelich, as do his 67 RBI. His .786 OPS leads the offense among qualified hitters. In 90 at-bats in July, he hit .367/.408/.600. The Brewers are resilient everywhere, but without one of their few genuine power threats and hottest bats, plus an everyday outfielder, they are courting a potential offensive slump. The most fans can hope for from Chourio is that he returns fully healthy by the first week of September. Until then, Blake Perkins and trade pickup Brandon Lockridge should see plenty of playing time while Yelich takes more reps in the outfield after getting most of his at-bats this season as the designated hitter.
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone responded Sunday, one day after Alex Rodriguez suggested his team lacks discipline and accountability. On FOX’s MLB pregame show Saturday, Rodriguez questioned the “accountability” of the Yankees after Boone did not pull Jazz Chisholm from Saturday’s loss to Miami after the infielder made a brutal baserunning blunder. Rodriguez suggested that the Yankees do not face consequences for such mistakes, and that it has contributed to further errors. “If any one of us made a mistake, we would be sitting our butt right on the bench,” Rodriguez said. “I see mistake after mistake, and there’s no consequences.” Boone took issue with those remarks when asked about them on Sunday. He said he accepts that the Yankees will always face added scrutiny, but that he disagreed with the substance of Rodriguez’s remarks. “I would disagree a little bit with the accountability factor, but the reality is, we’re focused every day on being the best we can be,” Boone said, via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “That’s how we have to do it. But I understand when it doesn’t happen, or we don’t have the record that I think we should have, or certainly people think we should have — that comes with the territory.” Boone is known for keeping things positive publicly, even when things are going poorly for the Yankees. That has led to some criticism from fans, who feel that he goes too easy on his players when they are underperforming. The team’s recent stretch of mediocre play combined with a lack of consequences for errors like Chisholm’s have reinforced those critiques. The Yankees lost again on Sunday and were swept by the Marlins, dropping them to 60-51 on the season. Until the team starts consistently winning again, Boone is going to hear more comments like Rodriguez’s.
It's been a lucrative weekend for some of the NFL's defensive tackles. Just one day after the Denver Broncos locked in Zach Allen on a long-term deal, the Miami Dolphins did the same with another Zach — Zach Sieler — and signed him to a three-year, $67 million extension that will now make him the highest-paid defensive player on the Dolphins roster. The Dolphins defense took a big step forward in 2024 and climbed to the top 10 in points allowed and the top four in yards allowed. They still struggled against some of the NFL's better teams, but it was a better unit overall and Sieler was a big part of that. He's been a full-time starter the past three seasons and is coming off back-to-back 10-sack campaigns for the Dolphins. He is going to turn 30 just after Week 1 of the season, but his game should age well throughout the contract extension. It was a quiet free agent signing period for the Dolphins defense, mainly focusing on depth additions, but they did make one blockbuster trade by sending Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers for Minkah Fitzpatrick. They also addressed the defensive line in the 2025 NFL Draft in a big way by selecting defensive lineman with two of their first three picks. That included first-round pick Kenneth Grant out of Michigan and fifth-round pick Jordan Phillips out of Maryland.
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