Seriously Minnesota?

Wow Gophers... That was seriously the worst performance for a bubble team in a must-win game in recent memory. You can take Minnesota out of the pecking order altogether.... they relegated to the "need a miracle" bucket with Seton Hall and Memphis.

One thing that people forget every year is that teams listed "IN" as a 12 seed today are in even shakier position than it appears because there are bound to be teams not in this projection that win their conference tournament. With their win tonight, I think UTEP has probably come close to locking up a bid, but the odds are they will not win the CUSA tournament. The Missouri Valley and West Coast Conference are two other leagues where there is a good chance that someone could "steal" a bid. And you never know when a team will come from absolutely nowhere to do so (a la Georgia 2008). I'd guess about 4 teams will win their conference tournament that bump someone out and 2 bubble teams that are currently out will play their way to be clearly in the field by a week from Sunday. So no one a below a 9 seed should feel at all safe.... even though it looks like a very soft bubble today, things will tighten up tremendously before Selection Sunday.

I'll have another full update on Friday, if not before.