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The regular season is over in one week, and conference tourneys are up around the bend. We are now two weeks away from selection Sunday. Some conference tournaments start this week, while most start next week. Remember, there are 68 spots available, comprised of 31 automatic bids to conference champions and 37 at-large bids. Here is a comprehensive look at the major leagues in Division-I (rankings are current AP poll)...
From the results that follow, we predict that at this point 57 bids are safe, which includes 31 auto-bids and 27 at-large bids. This means that there are TEN remaining bids that will go to the ''bubble'' teams that we have listed below. Out of the 57 that we have found, 27 come from the ''Big-6'' conferences and 31 from minor ones. A lot can change over the two weeks...
Conference Champs (5 Teams)
Atlantic Sun: Florida Gulf Coast
Big South: Liberty
Ivy: Harvard
MVC: #23 Creighton
Ohio Valley: #31 Belmont
Projected Conference Champs - Locks (10 Teams)
Atlantic-10: #16 St. Louis
ACC: #2 Duke
Big 12: #7 Kansas
Big East: #4 Louisville
Big Ten: #3 Indiana
Conference USA: #20 Memphis
Mountain West: #15 New Mexico
Pac-12: #21 UCLA
SEC: #13 Florida
West Coast: #1 Gonzaga
Projected Conference Champs - Must Win Conference (11 Teams)
America East: Stony Brook
Big Sky: Montana/Weber State
Big West: Long Beach State
Colonial: Northeastern
Horizon: #36t Valparaiso
MAAC: Iona
MEAC: Norfolk State/North Carolina Central
Northeast: LIU Brooklyn
Patriot: Bucknell
SWAC: Texas Southern/Southern
Summit: Western Illinois/South Dakota State
Projected Conference Champs - On Bubble If Upset (5 Teams)
MAC: Akron
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Stephen F. Austin
Sun Belt: Middle Tennessee
WAC: Louisiana Tech
At-Large - Locks (27 Teams)
Atlantic-10: #27 Butler, #25 VCU
ACC: #9 Miami, #28 UNC, NC State
Big 12: #11 Kansas State, #14 Oklahoma State, Oklahoma
Big East: #5 Georgetown, #12 Marquette, #24 Notre Dame, #17 Pittsburgh, #19 Syracuse
Big Ten: #8 Michigan State, #22 Wisconsin, #10 Ohio State, #6 Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota
Mountain West: #29 Colorado State, #32 UNLV, San Diego State
Pac-12: #35 Oregon, #18 Arizona, California
SEC: Missouri
WCC: #26 St. Mary's
At-Large - On Bubble (19 Teams)
Atlantic-10: La Salle, #30 Temple
ACC: Virginia, Maryland
Big 12: Iowa State, Baylor
Big East: #36t Villanova, Cincinnati
Big Ten: Iowa
Conference USA: Southern Miss
MVC: #33 Wichita State
Mountain West: Boise State
Pac-12: Colorado, Arizona State
SEC: #34 Kentucky, Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee
Bubble Recap
To recap, the bubble has TEN spots for 19 teams with realistic chances as of now. The available spots could shrink if some projected conference champs do not win their conference tournaments. If Auto-Bid bubble teams do not win their conference tournaments, they will be added to this list.
Current bubble teams include (in order):
Colorado (20-10, 10-8, RPI: 35, SOS: 16, Pac 12)
Cincinnati (21-10, 8-8, RPI: 46, SOS: 26, Big East)
Villanova (18-12, 9-8, RPI: 51, SOS: 18, Big East)
Wichita State (26-7, 12-6, RPI: 36, SOS: 107, MVC)
Temple (22-8, 9-5, RPI: 43, SOS: 77, Atlantic 10+6)
Iowa State (21-10, 9-7, RPI: 47, SOS: 63, Big XII-2)
Boise State (21-9, 8-6, RPI: 37, SOS: 70, Mountain West)
La Salle (21-8, 10-4, RPI: 38, SOS: 87, Atlantic 10+6)
Tennessee (19-11, 9-7, RPI: 54, SOS: 35, SEC)
Kentucky (21-10, 11-5, RPI: 50, SOS: 66, SEC)
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Virginia (20-10, 10-6, RPI: 71, SOS: 133, ACC)
Southern Miss (23-8, 11-3, RPI: 39, SOS: 80, Conference USA)
Alabama (19-10, 11-5, RPI: 60, SOS: 89, SEC)
Baylor (17-12, 8-8, RPI: 61, SOS: 22, Big XII-2)
Ole Miss (21-8, 10-6, RPI: 56, SOS: 150, SEC)
Iowa (18-11, 7-9, RPI: 72, SOS: 119, Big Ten+2)
Arkansas (18-11, 9-7, RPI: 75, SOS: 82, SEC)
Maryland (20-9, 8-8, RPI: 78, SOS: 123, ACC)
Arizona State (20-10, 9-8, RPI: 90, SOS: 124, Pac 12) |