Robert Morris players celebrate with the trophy after defeating Youngstown State in Horizon League Tournament championship Tuesday in Indianapolis. Associated Press

Auburn is the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, with Duke, Houston and Florida joining the Tigers on the No. 1 line in the March Madness brackets released Sunday.

The NCAA selection committee favored the regular-season champs of the record-setting Southeastern Conference despite three losses in their last four games, along with a loss to Duke back in December in the season’s lone meeting between the teams.

The Tigers (28-5) and Gators were two of the 14 SEC teams to make the field, which are the most for a conference in the history of the tournament.

In something of a surprise, both North Carolina and Texas slid in off the bubble, while Indiana, West Virginia and Boise State did not.

It’s Florida, which captured the SEC tournament by winning three games with an average margin of 15 points, that opens as a slight favorite to win it all at the Final Four in San Antonio on April 5 and 7, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

Butler graduate Ethan Morton will enjoy one last NCAA Tournament, this time with Colorado State. The west region’s 12-seeded Rams will face No. 5 Memphis in Seattle in Friday’s first round.

And more locally, Robert Morris got the No. 15 seed in the east region and will face No. 2 Alabama in Cleveland on Friday.

The 68-team bracket starts whittling down Tuesday with preliminary games, and the main draw kicks off Thursday and Friday, with 32 games at eight sites around the country.

The selection show began with a heartfelt tribute to the late Greg Gumbel, the CBS stalwart who oversaw the bracket unveiling for decades.

Then, just as Gumbel would have preferred, it was about the basketball — and this time there was plenty to talk about.

North Carolina looked all but out, a victim of a 1-12 record against so-called Quad 1 opponents and part of a conference (ACC) teetering on the verge of a historically bad season. But the Tar Heels made it, thanks maybe to a strong nonconference slate, while Texas was also in — its seven wins against Quad 1 teams outweighing its overall 15 losses.

The SEC's 14 teams were followed by the Big Ten with eight and Big 12 with seven. The ACC, meanwhile, ended up with four teams, barely avoiding its worst showing since 2000, back when the conference was half the size it is now.

Even in a down cycle, the ACC has Duke, and Duke has arguably the best player in the country in freshman Cooper Flagg, a 19-point, 7.5-rebound-a-game freshman whose ankle injury, the school says, will not keep him out of March Madness.