Bubble Watch

AS OF FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Bubble Breakdown and Comparison

Welcome back to the Bubble Watch. As we stated a couple of weeks ago, it will look at every team in the at-large mix hoping to grab one of the last spots for the NCAA Tournament. As the season enters its final two and a half weeks, the at-large picture is becoming slightly more clear – albeit very, very slightly. Teams are actually playing themselves into the Big Dance, while others are doing their best to avoid hearing their name called on Selection Sunday. Still, there are plenty of teams with a shot at getting one of the last few at-large invitations to the field. There is a lot of basketball left to played, though. According to the numbers, there are 12 bids still up for grabs, with 22 teams legitimately vying for them:

Locks: 26


Automatic bids from the other conferences: 20

46 Locks Overall

• ACC (1): Duke
  
• Big East (5): Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Georgetown
  
• Big Ten (4): Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin
  
• Big 12 (4): Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, Baylor
  
• Pac-10 (1): California
  
• SEC (3): Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
  
• Atlantic-10 (3): Temple, Richmond, Xavier
  
• Colonial (1): Old Dominion
  
• Conference-USA (1): UTEP
  
• Mountain West (2): BYU, New Mexico
  
• West Coast (1): Gonzaga
  

One-Bid Conferences (20): America East (Stony Brook); Atlantic Sun (Jacksonville); Big Sky (Weber State); Big South (Coastal Carolina); Big West (UC Santa Barbara); Horizon (Butler); Ivy (Cornell); MAC (Kent State); MAAC (Siena); MEAC (Morgan State); Missouri Valley (Northern Iowa); Northeast (Robert Morris); Ohio Valley (Murray State); Patriot (Lehigh); Southern (Charleston); Southland (Sam Houston State); Summit (Oakland); Sun Belt (North Texas); SWAC (Jackson State); WAC (Utah State)

Teams that need to keep winning to avoid the bubble – these bids are not up for grabs yet (7): Wake Forest, Maryland, Florida State, Clemson, Texas A&M, Missouri, UNLV

Teams that have work to do to even gain bubble consideration: Washington, Wichita State, William & Mary, Northwestern, Tulsa, Memphis, VCU, Saint Louis

Note: California, Utah State, UTEP, Siena, Cornell, Northern Iowa and Old Dominion are not included, as they are the current leaders in their respective conferences.

Rankings of the 22 Bubble Teams (Choose 12)

• 1. Oklahoma State
  
• 2. Florida
  
• 3. Louisville
  
• 4. Georgia Tech
  
• 5. Virginia Tech
  
• 6. Illinois
  
• 7. Marquette
  
• 8. Rhode Island
  
• 9. UAB
  
• 10. Connecticut
  
• 11. Charlotte
  
• 12. Saint Mary’s
  
• 13. San Diego State
  
• 14. Mississippi State
  
• 15. Cincinnati
  
• 16. Dayton
  
• 17. Mississippi
  
• 18. Notre Dame
  
• 19. Seton Hall
  
• 20. Minnesota
  
• 21. Arizona State
  
• 22. South Florida