
image from ESPN.com
Yes it is March, and you know what that means…March Madness! The NCAA basketball tournament starts next week, with teams fighting it out for their spot among the 65 team field. There are 31 conferences that send their conference champion to the tournament as an automatic seed. The rest of the field is chosen by committee and seeded into four regions. With 31 champions, that leaves 34 to be selected. All this will happen in the next couple of days. Some of the conferences have already crowned a champion, and many will be announcing them Saturday and Sunday. I will quickly run down who has made it in already and who else may make it in, based on rankings and projections.
Who is in…
America East Conference: Vermont beat Boston University 83 – 70
Atlantic Sun Conference: East Tennessee State beat Mercer 72 – 66
Big Sky Conference: Montana beat Weber State 66 – 65
Big South Conference: Winthrop beat Coastal Carolina 64 – 53
Colonial Conference: Old Dominion beat William & Mary 60 – 53
Conference USA: Houston beat UTEP 81 – 73 (UTEP was ranked 25 in nation and is expected to also make the tournament)
Horizon Conference: Butler beat Wright State 70 – 45
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference: Sienna beat Fairfield 72 – 65
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference: Morgan State beat South Carolina State 68 – 61
Missouri Valley Conference: Northern Iowa beat Wichita State 67 – 52
Northeast Conference: Robert Morris beat Quinnipiac 52 – 50
Ohio Valley Conference: Murray State beat Morehead State 62 – 51
Patriot League: Lehigh beat Lafayette 74 – 59
Southern Conference: Wofford beat Appalachian State 56 – 51
Southland Conference: Sam Houston State beat SF Austin 64 – 48
Summit League Conference: Oakland beat IUPU 76 – 64
Sunbelt Conference: North Texas beat Troy 66 – 63
West Coast Conference: Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga 81 – 62 (Gonzaga ranks 18 in the nation and should move on)
These winners are already in the tournament, yet many of these that you have not heard about will be out in the first round or two after they face the powerhouses from the larger conferences. For the larger conferences, the championship does not mean “life or death” to their basketball season as both the winner and runner up will make it to the dance, it just may raise or lower their seed. Here is a summary of the larger conferences and who you may see into the tournament.
ACC: Duke vs. Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech may need to win to make it into the NCAA tournament)
Big 12: Kansas vs. Kansas State (Excellent in-state match-up. #1 vs #9 nationally, both will make it in with up to 4 other Big 12 teams joining them)
Big East: Georgetown vs. West Virginia (#22 and #7 ranks nationally)
Big Ten: Ohio State and Minnesota (Ohio state is #5 nationally, Minn is unranked)
Pac-10: California vs. Washington (Neither is nationally ranked, former powerhouse UCLA was ranked 5th in the conference and lost to Cal)
SEC: Kentucky vs. Mississippi State (Kentucky is #2 in the nation)
I hope everyone is getting ready to fill out their tournament brackets, and have a great month of March and college hoops.