Automatic Bids

[Eric]

Okay, now that college basketball is beginning to mean something, we know who is in:

Belmont
Penn
Davidson
Murray State
Southern Illinois
Winthrop

But are any of these teams going to make some noise? What do you think? I think the only teams with a possible chance off of this list to make it to round 2 are......Southern Illinois and Winthrop. I think Murray State might have an outside chance, but if they get a 14 seed, it's over for them because they wouldn't be capable of beating a 3 seed.

Jason G, this is a travesty! Bracketography has Kent State as a FOURTEEN seed! They should be a 12 seed. This is outrageous! The MAC is still getting the attention of a NEC or Patriot League.

By the way, UNC Wilmington, Iona, and Gonzaga should lock up some bids tonight. But Gonzaga has been skating on thin ice, Loyola Marymount isn't very good, but if they just use their heads tonight, they have a fair chance. St. Peters has a prolific scorer, he can sure light things up and give the Peacocks a chance against the Gaels tonight. Hofstra is not a bad challenger for the Seahawks either, but any upset is possible tonight. However, I'm taking the 3 favorites tonight.

[..fanatic]

Loyola Marymount had a 15-point lead in that game and missed a layup at the buzzer to lose by one. Gonzaga has been struggling big time and won't survive long in the tourney in my view.

[Jason G]

I agree that Iona could make some noise in the tournament. It also seems that there is always a team that gets one of the very last at-large bids that ends up winning a game or two despite being an 11, 12, or 13 seed.

Eric, I have to agree about the MAC. Iit looks like they will get the same representation as the Atlantic Sun or SWAC. My question is what if Kent State makes it to the conference final and loses. That would give them 24 wins and their program has a reputation of being very good in the NCAA tournament. I think they should have a shot at an at-large bid. A 14 seed is very low. When in the tourney the MAC regular season champ should never be lower than a 12 seed. For some reason the league is getting very little respect this year.
Anyway, it looks like the MAC will have get postseason bids similar to last year, one NCAA and 4 or more in the NIT. I think this will make the fourth or fifth year in a row that the MAC will get at least 4 teams to the postseason but only one in the NCAA. Most non-BCS conferences consider it rare or occasional at best have four teams in postseason. Does that mean the MAC is getting respect or that they aren't?
I guess I could understand if this year wasn't the norm (especially with the strength of the MVC and CAA this year) but this has been happening every year for a while now.

[Eric]

Irish88, sorry to hear about your Catamounts. I wouldn't be too disappointed, on a much lesser scale, they are comparable to North Carolina. They lost a great portion of their team last year and their head coach, and still managed to make it to the America East finals. They have ZERO seniors and two juniors, so look for the Catamounts to make some noise next season. At least they took care of those uniforms!!

Well, if Toledo wins tonight, they should be granted a 13 or possibly a 14 seed, and Kent State should make the tournament as a 12 seed at-large. At least give the MAC 2 spots!

Same goes for C-USA. Can you really have a 1 seed and a 9 (potentially) seed and not have any other tournament teams? I don't think so. They need to make up their mind between Houston and UTEP, because it would be ridiculous to give C-USA 2 bids.