Bracketology: Champions Classic means changes to the bracket

When No. 1 seeds are playing other No. 1 seeds, expect the bracket to have some shuffling and that's exactly what happened after Michigan State beat Kentucky and Kansas defeated Duke on Tuesday.

CHICAGO -- Normally, we wouldn't do a bracket update just a week after releasing the preseason bracket, but normally, we don't have the four projected No. 1 seeds playing each other in a doubleheader, so we did some tweaking.

Bracketology

Palm's projected bracket

Michigan State, on the strength of its win over Kentucky, takes over the No. 1 overall seed, followed by the other winner from Tuesday, Kansas. Louisville moves up to third, while the Wildcats hang on to No. 4. Duke drops off the top line.

With an expected season-long fight for the top line of the bracket, those two games last night could end up being key factors in which team gets a No. 1 seed, the order of the top seeds, and the geographic reward that usually goes with those better seeds.

There are a few other minor changes down the line reflecting some of the early results as well. Xavier and St. Mary's have joined the bracket, while LSU and UNLV have fallen out.