March 10, 2015

Just five action packed days left before Selection Sunday!
Three more automatic bids were secured last night. Northeastern, Wofford, and Manhattan joined the field, bringing the total to seven. Wofford was nearly upset in the SoCon final by Furman, who would have been the first 21-loss team in more than 40 years to earn an NCAA bid.

Four more conferences will finalize their auto-bids this evening:
-Horizon League: The top two teams all season will square off for the conference championship. I'm going to give #1 Valparaiso the very slight edge over #2 UW-Green Bay in this one. They split the regular season matchups, with each team squeaking out a very narrow home win.
-Northeast Conference: In another chalk final, #1 St. Francis-Brooklyn will face #2 Robert Morris. And again, the teams split their regular season meetings, except here the road team narrowly won. Once again I'll give the edge to the top seed in a close finish.
-Summit League: There's a trend here...#1 vs #2 yet again. Top seed South Dakota State faces #2 North Dakota State, and they split the season series with the home team taking each game. And again, I'll give the slight edge to the top seeded Jackrabbits.
-West Coast Conference: Although this one is yet another #1 vs #2 matchup, the likely outcome here is a bit more obvious. Gonzaga will be heavy favorites against BYU, who desperately needs this win to secure their at-large bid.


1's: Kentucky, Virginia, Villanova, Duke
2's: Kansas, Wisconsin, Arizona, Gonzaga
3's: Maryland, Baylor, Iowa State, Notre Dame
4's: Oklahoma, West Virginia, Louisville, Georgetown
5's: Utah, Northern Iowa, North Carolina, Wichita State
6's: SMU, Arkansas, Butler, Colorado State
7's: VCU, Providence, Saint John's, Iowa
8's: San Diego State, Oklahoma State, Texas, North Carolina State
9's: Cincinnati, Ohio State, Xavier, Michigan State
10's: Oregon, Davidson, Indiana, Temple
11's: LSU, Georgia, Dayton, Tulsa, Texas A&M
12's: Ole Miss, Purdue, Old Dominion, Stephen F. Austin, Wofford
13's: Harvard, Buffalo, UC Davis, Valparaiso
14's: Georgia State, Northeastern, South Dakota State, Eastern Washington
15's: Stony Brook, Belmont, North Carolina Central, New Mexico State
16's: Lafayette, Coastal Carolina, Texas Southern, Saint Francis (NY), North Florida, Manhattan

FFO: Illinois, Boise State, BYU, Connecticut
NFO: Richmond, UCLA, Stanford, Miami (FL)