bukie

Actual at-large bids are on the line tonight with the WCC (St. Mary's-Gonzaga), MAAC (Niagara-Siena), Colonial (VCU-George Mason) and Southern (Charleston-Chattanooga) championships. In addition, two teams in their first year in Division 1 basketball both reached the semis of the Summit league tournament in North Dakota State and South Dakota State.

As a fan of a team in danger of falling to a 6 seed, I'd pay good money to get LSU as a 3 seed in my bracket.

To reiterate... Current auto-bids (5): East Tennessee State, Radford, Cornell, Northern Iowa, Morehead State Current at-large locks (25): Arizona State, Butler, Clemson, Connecticut, Duke, Florida State, Gonzaga, Illinois, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, Marquette, Memphis, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Syracuse, UCLA, Villanova, Wake Forest, Washington, Xavier Current other teams in consideration (49): Arizona, Auburn, Boston College, BYU, California, Cincinnati, Creighton, Davidson, Dayton, Florida, Georgetown, Green Bay, Houston, Illinois State, Kansas State, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Niagara, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Providence, Rhode Island, San Diego State, Siena, South Carolina, St. Mary's, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulsa, UAB, UNLV, USC, Utah, Utah State, VCU, Virginia Tech, Washington State, West Virginia, Wisconsin Current step of the process is for people to list the top 16 out of the locks and the top 8 out of the "other teams". 8 additional "other teams" will make the current at-large list 33, one shy of the 34 that exist. Eventually, at-large locks will win their conference tournaments (hopefully?), and other spots will open up.

Really, really slim chance at this point. Possibly better than Creighton, but Illinois State had a better profile last year and didn't get an at-large (actually, that was the one team we missed on last year).

Z, just so you know, the official "locks" for this committee are listed in the first post, so teams like WVU, Cal, Texas, and Wisconsin are not locks, per say, yet.

I'm sure you just accidentally glossed over them, but how do you not have Louisville as a lock? His rep is Louisville, so he's not allowed to vote for them.

Correct, unless they're called up to the majors during the year.

Northern Iowa won the MVC, which takes them out of consideration for an at-large bid and puts them on the auto-bid list.

Well, they're on the board, which is better than they can say for any other season we've done this so far.

Not quite as much conspiracy theory as the one where Michael Jordan's baseball career was a self-imposed 2-year suspension for gambling. Definitely weird, though.

So we can select players who are not yet listed at CBS?

You don't like Cal?

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a single SEC team at a top 8 seed.

Like I said before, I really like MSU's profile at this point.

That's fine to make changes, just make sure I'm aware of them or I won't notice. :)

I'd love that. That would be a great story. That's partially my thought too. When you've got all these bubble teams losing down the stretch, and basically looking like crap. Then you have the team that's never made the tournament finishing strong, do you really want to make them one of the first 4 out? Heck, I don't think they even need 3 more wins to get in. A win today and I'd put them ahead of Ohio State and Minnesota just in the Big Ten pecking order, no matter what happens next week.

Hey, Illinois gets the 2 seed anyway.

Draft order: 1 Saber Metrics - Buster Posey 2 The Fighting Manginos - Gordon Beckham 3 Valenzuela's Screwballs - Tim Beckham 4 Lynx - Eric Hosmer 5 Severe Tooterstorms - Aaron Hicks 6 NC Cubs - Jason Castro 7 Tampa Bay Rays 8 Quakers 9 Harrys Budcrew 10 The Eyes of Texas 11 Northside Baseball 12 Alamo Stealth 13 Galesburg Hand Sanitizers 14 Tootielicious 15 Fuzzy Logistics 16 Raw Dawgs

Morehead wins!

OVC title game is tied with 30 seconds to play on ESPN2. EDIT: And Morehead State takes a 2-point lead with 6 seconds to play on an alleyoop. Yes, Morehead State is the actual name of a D-1 university.

Well, if we're starting and I'm first and any available prospect is fair game, I'll draft Buster Posey.

Northern Iowa vs. Illinois State for the MVC title tomorrow after ISU blew out Creighton by 25. Could very well be a one-bid league this year. Added Radford and East Tennessee State to the auto-bid list.

Game results involving teams in consideration: @Iowa 75 Penn State 67 2OT Michigan 67 @Minnesota 64 @BC 67 Georgia Tech 66 Albany 56 @Vermont 52 OT (AE Quarters) (Motion to eliminate Vermont from consideration?) Seton Hall 67 @Cincy 63 OT @Miami 72 NC State 64 @Kansas St 76 Colorado 64 @Florida 60 Kentucky 53 South Carolina 68 @Georgia 51 Massachusetts 72 @Rhode Island 71 @Texas A&M 96 Missouri 86 @Davidson 84 Appalachian St 68 (Southern Quarters) @Arizona State 83 California 66 @Northern Iowa 76 Bradley 62 (MVC Semis) @UAB 70 Marshall 52 @Oklahoma 82 Oklahoma State 78 @Virginia 68 Maryland 63 New Mexico 74 @Wyoming 73 @Auburn 69 LSU 53 Nebraska 66 @Baylor 62 (Motion to remove Baylor from consideration?) Tulsa 60 @Rice 50 @Kansas 83 Texas 73 @Georgetown 48 DePaul 40 @Siena 77 Canisius 52 (MAAC Quarters) Illinois State 73 @Creighton 49 (MVC Semis) @Washington 67 Washington State 60 @Utah 68 TCU 49

Still haven't decided whether Illinois having a bye on the last weekend of the season is a good or bad thing.

OK, finally, here's the results from round 1: 13 Committee members: bukie (Illinois) ISUCubsFan (Iowa State) Tranny Tiger (Mizzou) CubInOK (Oklahoma) mul21 (Illinois) Z38Cubs (Illinois) Exile on Waveland (Indiana) Flames24Rulz (Southern Illinois) Prior4CyYoung (Louisville) CubbieBum (Purdue?) Vanilla Ice (Duke) SouthSideRyan (Illinois) TruffleShuffle (Penn State/Holy Cross?) Auto-bids (31): Cornell (Ivy) At-large Locks (25): Arizona State Butler Clemson Connecticut Duke Florida State Gonzaga Illinois Kansas Louisville LSU Marquette Memphis Michigan State Missouri North Carolina Oklahoma Pittsburgh Purdue Syracuse UCLA Villanova Wake Forest Washington Xavier Under consideration (roughly in order of support): BYU California Utah West Virginia Texas Tennessee Minnesota Oklahoma State Wisconsin Ohio State South Carolina Arizona Boston College Creighton Dayton Penn State Providence Florida Maryland New Mexico Rhode Island Siena Texas A&M Cincinnati Kentucky San Diego State St. Mary's UNLV Virginia Tech Davidson Kansas State Miami Michigan Northwestern Utah State UAB Notre Dame Georgetown USC Temple Tulsa Washington State Auburn Baylor Houston Illinois State Nebraska Northern Iowa VCU Green Bay Niagara Vermont I'll be updating the first post with this information as well. Step 2: By the end of Monday, PM me your top 16 locks in order, and your top 8 under consideration in order.