What ESPN, CBS, bracketology say about South Carolina MBB’s NCAA Tournament seed

Selection Sunday for March Madness is here. And the South Carolina Gamecocks are going dancing — somewhere.

The more geographically favorable host cities for Lamont Paris’ team to land in would be Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, Indianapolis or Memphis, with Spokane, Salt Lake City and Omaha the long-distance options. Of the national bracketologists who are pegging the Gamecocks to a city, the most common landing spot has been Spokane, Washington.

Here’s the latest of where bracketology experts say South Carolina (26-7) will be playing its first round game in the NCAA Tournament this week. The Selection Show is 6 p.m. today on CBS.

Bracket Matrix

The website’s average of more than 100 national brackets has South Carolina as a composite No. 5 seed. Other 5 seeds include BYU, San Diego State and Wisconsin. The 5 seed matches up with No. 12, and the 12 seeds here are Grand Canyon, VCU, McNeese State and UAB. According to Bracket Matrix, a lone prediction has the Gamecocks as a No. 4 seed, with three projecting them as a 7 seed. But most still predict a 5 or 6 seed.

Jerry Palm and CBS Sports

Bracketologist Jerry Palm updates his bracket Sunday and has the Gamecocks as a No. 5 seed in the Midwest region, playing 12-seed James Madison in Omaha, Nebraska. No. 4 Duke and No. 13 UAB are projected in the same bracket grouping. Palm has been pretty consistent in slotting USC in Spokane until his latest update.

Joe Lunardi and ESPN

Joe Lunardi’s bracket projection for ESPN — updated several times Sunday — also has USC as a No. 5 seed but playing in Brooklyn as part of the East region. Lunardi has the Gamecocks facing No. 12 McNeese, with No. 4 Duke and No. 13 Yale in the other matchup.

Fox Sports

FOX Sports bracket pundit Mike DeCourcy projects South Carolina as a No. 5 seed in the South region and facing No. 12 James Madison. They’d be grouped with No. 4 Illinois and No. 13 VCU. DeCourcy, whose bracket was updated Saturday afternoon, doesn’t break his picks down into the cities where the games will be played.

Field of 68

The Field of 68 media network projects South Carolina as a No. 6 seed in the South region and matching up against the First Four winner and No. 11 seed — either New Mexico State or St. John’s. Field of 68 has USC grouped with No. 3 Illinois and No. 14 Akron. These matchups were last predicted on Saturday.

USA Today

USA Today’s bracket, updated Sunday morning, has the Gamecocks in Spokane as the No. 5 seed and facing Samford. The other game in the grouping is No. 4 Kansas against UAB.