The Madness Ensues
It has gotten to that time of year again, look for a few weeks of bloodshot eyes, hoarse voices and sick days taken from work. Yep, March Madness is upon us. With the action in full swing all around the USA this weekend as teams vie for one of the 68 available places in this seasons NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships.
A few teams already have tickets to the big dance. In thus far are (Conference in parenthesis):
Belmont (Atlantic Sun)
UNC-Asheville (Big South)
Northern Colorado (Big Sky)
Old Dominion (Colonial)
Butler (Horizon)
St. Peter’s (MAAC)
Indiana State (Missouri Valley)
Long Island (Northeast)
Morehead State (Ohio Valley)
Wofford (Southern)
Oakland (Summit)
Arkansas-Little Rock (Sun Belt)
Gonzaga (West Coast)
Sizing up the rest:
America East http://www.americaeast.com/
Stony Brook vs. Boston U for conference championship and lone NCAA bid on Saturday.
While it is a lean year nationally by ACC standards look for bids to go to North Carolina, Clemson, Duke and Virginia Tech.
Atlantic 10 http://www.atlantic10.com/
Xavier, Temple and Richmond should all be dancing from the A-10.
Big East http://www.bigeast.org/
Conference set to have an unprecedented 11 teams in tourney…..we’ll see on Sunday.
Big Ten http://www.bigten.org/
Five bids to the Big 10 with the possibility of Michigan State making it six.
Big Twelve http://www.big12sports.com/
Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Kansas State and Colorado should be in.
Conference USA http://conferenceusa.cstv.com/
Alabama-Birmingham could be out of NCAA play after failing to consolidate their regular season championship….Memphis and UTEP are favourites to meet in tourney final with the winner going on to NCAA play.
Ivy League http://www.ivyleaguesports.com
Harvard plays off against Princeton for the leagues automatic bid.
Mid America Conference http://www.mac-sports.com/
Conference tourney down to semis with Akron playing Western Michigan and Ball State playing Kent State. Kent State is regular season champ and most likely to win tourney and NCAA bid.
Semi Finals are up with Morgan State playing Bethune-Cookman and Norfolk State meeting Hampton. Cookman should get the bid but do not rule out Morgan State.
Mountain West
Brigham Young, San Diego State and UNLV have tickets to the dance, New Mexico could crash the party with one more win in conference tourney.
Pacific Ten http://www.pac-10.org
Arizona, Washington and UCLA should be in with USC as a hopeful.
Patriot League http://www.patriotleague.org/
Bucknell faces Lafayette for the NCAA bid.
Southeastern Conference http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com
Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Georgia should be in with Alabama hanging on to hope.
Southland Conference http://www.southland.org/
Favourites McNeese State should get a win over Texas-San Antonio and the NCAA bid.
Southwest Athletic Conference http://www.swac.org
Grambling meets Jackson State and Texas Southern plays Alabama State in the semis. Texas-Southern is favourite to get the bid.
Western Athletic Conference http://www.wacsports.com
San Jose State faces Utah State and Boise State meets New Mexico State in semi final round. Utah State is the crème of the crop in this conference and should go to NCAA’s even with a loss.
I will be back to size up the brackets and make a few predictions on Sunday. Until then…enjoy the Festival de Hoops.
