The college basketball is just over a week underway, but with the transfer portal in full swing, national pundits have begun to project what the 2024-25 season will look like.

And early in the offseason, it appears that several national voices have big expectations for Boise State going into next season.

The latest one came Monday when ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his first Bracketology projection of the offseason.

As significant as Boise State’s appearance on the No. 9 seed line, were the letters ‘aq’ next to the name.

Of course, ‘aq’ stands for automatic qualifier, meaning that Lunardi projects the Broncos to be the top team in the Mountain West and grab the automatic bid to the tournament in Las Vegas

Getting the automatic bid would be huge, especially if Boise State is a bubble team next year, as it would keep the Broncos from having to go to Dayton, Ohio for a First Four game.

This past season, Boise State was largely projected to be a seven or eight seed going into Selection Sunday, but fell to a 10 seed and had to travel to Dayton, where the Broncos lost to Colorado.

Lunardi has Boise State as the No. 9 team in the south region and facing Indiana in the first round in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Broncos are one of two teams from the Mountain West, which sent a league-high six teams to the tournament this season, to be in Lunardi’s debut field. New Mexico is slated as a No. 10 seed in the West, projected to face Wisconsin in the first round in Seattle.