Lots of new blood at the bottom today's bracket. Florida, Providence, and South Carolina out; Rhode Island, New Mexico and Creighton in (sort of). Creighton has been showing up as the auto bid, but my rule is that the 1-seed in the conference tourney gets the projected auto bid. That's not Creighton in the Valley tourney, it's UNI. So, Creighton grabbed one of the final AL slots.
The Bubble is bigger than 6 slots, but I feel like 6 were truly up for grabs. I took Creighton, Maryland, Arizona, UNLV, Rhode Island, and New Mexico over Michigan, Northwestern, Providence, Miami-FL, St. Mary's, South Carolina, and Florida. There are a few more teams out on the fringe, but they need big-time finishes to jump these teams.
It's hard to imagine the SEC only getting two teams in, but they have worked very hard on their collective mediocrity and may get rewarded justly. Kentucky's RPI is 79 today, so they are going to need a big finish. South Carolina lacks anything resembling a big win and Florida is languishing home having lost 6/9. Auburn is getting some talk, but they are a long, long shot. Tough times for the SEC.
Interestingly, the SEC commissioner is this year's selection committee chair. That's a neutral statement, but an intriguing one nonetheless.
Multi-Bid Conference Breakdown
ACC (7): North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, Boston College, Maryland
Big East (7): UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Villanova, Marquette, Syracuse, West Virginia
Big Ten (7): Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Penn State
Big 12 (6): Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M
Pac-10 (5): Washington, UCLA, California, Arizona State, Arizona
Mountain West (4): Utah, BYU, UNLV, New Mexico
Atlantic 10 (3): Xavier, Dayton, Rhode Island
Missouri Valley (2): Northern Iowa, Creighton
SEC (2): LSU, Tennessee
