Who's In and Who's Out: Inaugural Edition

Welcome to the first posting of which teams will be making the NCAA Tournament come March and which will be left at home.

I plan to update this on a regular basis (hopefully weekly). Just a few notes before we begin. The field is determined based on what is happening right now, as if the Tournament selection was today. I am not projecting what teams will be doing in the future. Because of that, teams that are in first place in their respective conferences get the automatic bids. In the case of a tie between two teams, the team that has performed better overall to this point in the season gets the nod.

Let’s start with conferences that will absolutely be getting only one bid (these teams need to maintain their spots at the top to make the dance):

America East: Vermont
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee State
Big Sky: Idaho State
Big South: Winthrop
Big West: Long Beach State
Ivy: Pennsylvania
Metro Atlantic Athletic: Loyola (Md.)
Mid Continent: Oral Roberts
Mid-America: Toledo
Mid-Eastern Athletic: Delaware State
Northeast: Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley: Austin Peay
Patriot: Holy Cross
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Southwest Athletic: Texas Southern
Sunbelt: South Alabama

Now there are four conferences that are almost certainly only one bid conferences, assuming the team at the top of the standings now wins the conference tournament. Potential at-large teams will have to root like hell for these four teams, because if they don’t get their conferences automatic bids, they are likely to steal coveted at-large spots.

Conference USA: Memphis
Horizon: Butler
West Coast: Gonzaga
Western Athletic: Nevada

Now for the rest of the conferences (total current bids in parenthesis):

Atlantic 10 (1):
In – Rhode Island (automatic bid)
On the Cusp – Xavier, Massachusetts
Long Climb Ahead – George Washington

Atlantic Coast Conference (8):
In – Boston College (automatic bid), North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Maryland
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Virginia

Big 12 (5):
In – Texas A&M (automatic bid), Kansas, Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State
On the Cusp – Kansas State
Long Climb Ahead – Oklahoma

Big East (7):
In – Pittsburgh (automatic bid), Syracuse, Notre Dame, Marquette, Georgetown, West Virginia, Providence
On the Cusp – Connecticut
Long Climb Ahead – Louisville, Seton Hall, DePaul, Villanova

Big Ten (4):
In – Wisconsin (automatic bid), Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State
On the Cusp – Michigan, Illinois
Long Climb Ahead – Purdue, Iowa

Colonial Athletic (2):
In – Virginia Commonwealth, Hofstra
On the Cusp – Drexel
Long Climb Ahead – None

Missouri Valley (4):
In – Northern Iowa (automatic bid), Southern Illinois, Creighton, Missouri State
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Bradley

Mountain West (2):
In – Air Force (automatic bid), UNLV
On the Cusp – None
Long Climb Ahead – Colorado State, San Diego State, BYU

Pacific-10 (5):
In – Oregon (automatic bid), UCLA, Washington State, USC, Arizona
On the Cusp – Stanford
Long Road Ahead – California, Washington

Southeastern (6):
In – Florida (automatic bid), Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Tennessee
On the Cusp – Georgia
Long Road Ahead – Vanderbilt, Mississippi State

Final Four In: Maryland, Florida State, Missouri State, Creighton
First Four Out: Xavier, Michigan, Drexel, Stanford

What team did I miss? What team doesn’t deserve to be on the list? We want to know what you think. Post your comments below.