The Lockbox has been updated. I believe my first late-to-the-party bracket will go up tomorrow at some point.
What does the Lockbox do? It lists all teams under consideration
organized by conference and color-coded by level of security in the
bracket (this is the subjective part). Mainly, it gives a picture of how
big the Bubble is at any given time.
The Bubble by the Numbers
--31 Automatic Bids. That number will not change this season. Black italics means a team is the projected auto-bid for that conference.
--37 At-Large Bids (AL). That is also a static number.
--Currently, 20 AL teams are listed in black (or are LOCKS). LOCKS cannot miss, even if they lost out. The black teams could be left out in March, but it would take a monumental meltdown for them to miss.
--I have six other AL teams listed in blue, which means they are on their way, but an unexpected loss or two could put them on the Bubble.
--That means 26 AL slots are taken, leaving the Bubble at 11 at the moment. Generally, this number will shrink as we head toward Selection Sunday. Bubble-IN teams are in green, Bubble-OUT teams are in red.
