As I have mentioned before, the NCAA Tournament is the most exciting American sporting event of the year, but the "preliminaries", that is the conference tournaments, can be just as exciting. But as a result of upsets in the conference tournaments, such as New Mexico State over Utah St. in the WAC Championship, teams that were "on the bubble" have seen their bubbles burst into tears.
According to ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, as of right now, Mississippi St., Illinois, Ole Miss, Florida and Seton Hall are out of consideration for inclusion into the Big Dance. this being as a result of automatic bids taken by conference tournament winners New Mexico St. and Houston. Houston was the 7th seed in the Conference USA Tournament, and the Cougars defeated #1 seeded UTEP (Univ. of Texas-El Paso) to win the automatic bid to the dance. UTEP is a lock to make it as an at large due to their record of 26-6 overall and 15-1 in conference play. The Cougars will make their first appearance in the dance since 1992, and they probably stole a bid from Illinois or Ole Miss.
Illinois had their chances during the season to shore up an at large bid, but losses to Georgia, Bradley, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri and Northwestern will probably do them in despite wins over #24 Vanderbilt, #5 Michigan St. and #13 Wisconsin. If Illinois had toppled Ohio St. in the Big 10 Tournament, they might have earned themselves a bid. As it is, they will have to sweat it out come Sunday Night at 5 pm CST when the brackets are announced.
The Gators also might be crying "alligator tears" come Sunday night. They finished the regular season with an over all record of 20-11 and 9-7 in the SEC, but they too have crucial losses against Georgia (14-17, 5-11 SEC), South Carolina (15-16, 6-10 SEC), Xavier, Richmond and a bad loss to a mediocre South Alabama team. Xavier and Richmond are solid teams and will make the tournament, but Georgia and South Alabama had average to poor seasons. Minnesota really helped themselves with big wins over Michigan St. and Purdue, both top 10 teams, and with a win over #7 Ohio St. in the Big 10 Final Sunday 3/14, the Gophers will have doug themselves out of a huge whole which will truly be "Golden". Teams like Florida, Ole Miss, Rhode Island and Memphis will probably be sorely disappointed come Sunday night if the Golden Gophers win.
It is situations like this that are making officials in the NCAA think about expanding the tournament to 96 teams. I would say that if they were to allow more RSVPs to the dance, then expand it to 80. That's 15 more teams. Ninety-Six is too many, but I'm getting away from the topic at hand. Bid stealing by lesser teams who win their conference tournaments make it clear that every game during the regular season from November to February is so important. You never know what can happen in the first week of March.
Mississippi St., as of right now according to ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, is currently out of the tournament, but that can change with a win over Kentucky in the SEC Tournament Final. Obviously should that happen, they would get the automatic bid. That will be a tall order. The Cats have clawed their way through the SEC tourney field to a probable No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
As mentioned earlier, New Mexico St. upset Utah St. to win the WAC automatic bid. However, Utah St. will probably still go to the tourney. I could be wrong and some experts such as ESPN's Doug Gottlieb think they won't be chosen. They are the regular season champions with a record of 27-7 and 14-2 in the WAC. They have a strong RPI of 26 (the lower, the better). The suspense is exhilarating. None of us really knows till Sunday night. It's exiting. March Madness, in a sense, is already begun.
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