Unofficially I have 23 locks of the 34 automatic bids. That leaves 11 spots to be "won" by 27 teams. The 11 spots may be less if teams that are locks don't win their conference tournaments. Let's take a look at a couple of these:
Horizon - Butler
Butler should hang out and continue their dominance over the Horizon. That's good news for the bubble.
Northern Iowa - Missouri Valley
N.Iowa is good but the Valley always has a tough conference. I expect the Panthers to lose and Wichita State or Illinois State to come out with the auto-bid. There goes 1 bubble spot
Gonzaga - West Coast
It'll be the Zags over St. Mary's in the final. With St. Mary's third loss to Gonzaga perhaps they fall out of the bracket opening another spot. Could happen
UTEP - Conference USA
The Miners are on a 13 game win streak. I'd almost put them in lock status unless they slip this weekend and lose their first round game. I don't see that happening but I think they lose in the C-USA finals to Tulsa. Both teams get in and the bubble shrinks again
Old Dominion - Colonial
My favorite conference; there is no way the Monarchs sweep through and win the conference. I'll say Northeastern beats VCU in the final and the Colonial becomes a 2 bid league
So, there you have it, suddenly the bubble is projected at 8 bids. Let the games continue.
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