The bid thieves and bubble teams are lurking. Here’s who they could be, and how to avoid them if your favorite school is within shouting distance of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
You might be a fan, friend, or alumni of a school that’s on the bubble to make the 2023 NCAA Tournament. And while your team continuing to win is always good, having some other teams lose will be helpful too.
So we decided to make a rooting guide for teams that are on the fence for potentially making the tournament. You’ll want all the teams that are already locks for the NCAA Tournament field to win, all your fellow bubble teams to lose, and all the potential “bid thieves” in the major conferences to win ... until they get to the conference tournament championship game, where you’ll want them to lose.
What you don’t want is a team that’s at the bottom of a multi-bid conference’s regular season standings to come out of nowhere and win their way into March Madness.
There were 32 Division I conferences when the college basketball postseason started. Ten of them were multi-bid leagues, and the WCC already completed play with their two locks in Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga reaching the championship game.
There are now 19 leagues still playing their conference tournaments, but only nine of them could spoil a bid for a bubble team remaining. Eight of them are multi-bid conferences, while FAU is the only team in Conference USA that could receive an at-large berth. Bubble team fans will want the Owls to win their tournament, but for the other eight it just kind of depends on how things break down. The other 10 conferences are irrelevant; they’ll all only send their tournament champion to the NCAA’s.
So we listed all the teams you need to worry about below. You can print this out and start crossing off the threats, and we’ll also update these here as the games continue through the weekend heading into Selection Sunday, March 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Wake Forest
Pitt
Clemson
North Carolina
NC State
Miami
Duke
Virginia
ECU-UCF winner
SMU-UCF winner
Tulsa-Wichita State winner
Cincinnati
Tulane
Memphis
Houston
St. John’s
DePaul
Villanova
Providence
Marquette
UConn
Xavier
Creighton
Ohio State
Minnesota
Rutgers-Michigan
Penn State
Purdue
Northwestern
Indiana
Michigan State
Iowa
Maryland
Illinois
None
Oklahoma State
West Virginia
Kansas
Texas
Kansas State
Baylor
Iowa State
TCU
Everyone that’s not Florida Atlantic
Florida Atlantic
None
Colorado State
San Jose State
UNLV
New Mexico
Boise State
Utah State
Nevada
San Diego State
Colorado
Washington State
Stanford
Arizona State
Oregon
UCLA
Arizona
USC
Florida
Mississippi
Vanderbilt
LSU
Mississippi State
Auburn
Arkansas
Alabama
Texas A&M
Kentucky
Missouri
Tennessee
You might be a fan, friend, or alumni of a school that’s on the bubble to make the 2023 NCAA Tournament. And while your team continuing to win is always good, having some other teams lose will be helpful too.
So we decided to make a rooting guide for teams that are on the fence for potentially making the tournament. You’ll want all the teams that are already locks for the NCAA Tournament field to win, all your fellow bubble teams to lose, and all the potential “bid thieves” in the major conferences to win ... until they get to the conference tournament championship game, where you’ll want them to lose.
What you don’t want is a team that’s at the bottom of a multi-bid conference’s regular season standings to come out of nowhere and win their way into March Madness.
There were 32 Division I conferences when the college basketball postseason started. Ten of them were multi-bid leagues, and the WCC already completed play with their two locks in Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga reaching the championship game.
There are now 19 leagues still playing their conference tournaments, but only nine of them could spoil a bid for a bubble team remaining. Eight of them are multi-bid conferences, while FAU is the only team in Conference USA that could receive an at-large berth. Bubble team fans will want the Owls to win their tournament, but for the other eight it just kind of depends on how things break down. The other 10 conferences are irrelevant; they’ll all only send their tournament champion to the NCAA’s.
So we listed all the teams you need to worry about below. You can print this out and start crossing off the threats, and we’ll also update these here as the games continue through the weekend heading into Selection Sunday, March 12 at 6:00 p.m.
ACC
Thieves
Wake Forest
Bubble Teams
Pitt
Clemson
North Carolina
NC State
In
Miami
Duke
Virginia
American
Thieves
ECU-UCF winner
SMU-UCF winner
Tulsa-Wichita State winner
Cincinnati
Tulane
Bubble Teams
Memphis
In
Houston
Big East
Thieves
St. John’s
DePaul
Villanova
Bubble Teams
Providence
In
Marquette
UConn
Xavier
Creighton
Big Ten
Thieves
Ohio State
Minnesota
Bubble Teams
Rutgers-Michigan
Penn State
In
Purdue
Northwestern
Indiana
Michigan State
Iowa
Maryland
Illinois
Big 12
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Oklahoma State
West Virginia
In
Kansas
Texas
Kansas State
Baylor
Iowa State
TCU
Conference USA
Thieves
Everyone that’s not Florida Atlantic
Bubble Teams
Florida Atlantic
In
None
Mountain West
Thieves
Colorado State
San Jose State
UNLV
New Mexico
Bubble Teams
Boise State
Utah State
Nevada
In
San Diego State
Pac-12
Thieves
Colorado
Washington State
Stanford
Bubble Teams
Arizona State
Oregon
In
UCLA
Arizona
USC
SEC
Thieves
Florida
Mississippi
Vanderbilt
LSU
Bubble Teams
Mississippi State
Auburn
Arkansas
In
Alabama
Texas A&M
Kentucky
Missouri
Tennessee
