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The NCAA Tournament selection show is mere hours away and there are five games remaining on the Championship Week schedule. The biggest game of Sunday is the AAC Championship Game, featuring the 12-10 Cincinnati Bearcats against the 23-3 Houston Cougars. Houston is in the NCAA Tournament regardless of the result while Cincinnati has to win to get in.
If the Bearcats win, they will knock out a bubble team. That means plenty of teams will have a vested interest in the outcome and will likely be glued to their televisions Sunday afternoon. Interested parties will include the likes of Saint Louis, Wichita State, Colorado State, and Utah State. All are teetering on the bubble of the various bracketologists as Sunday arrives.
The bubble is even more notable than normal in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has cost teams in the conference tournaments. Northern Iowa, North Carolina A&T, Duke, Virginia, and Kansas all had to forfeit during their respective tournaments due to positive tests preventing them from fielding enough players. If a team has to withdraw from the NCAA Tournament within 48 hours of the bracket being finalized, a team that just misses on Selection Sunday could get a second shot.
Here’s a look at how bracketologists view the bubble as of Sunday morning. We’ve got brackets from SB Nation’s Chris Dobbertean, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm, and BracketWag’s Shelby Mast.
Last four in
Dobbertean: Syracuse, Louisville, Wichita State, Utah State
Lunardi: Syracuse, Louisville, Drake, Utah State
Palm: Wichita State, Syracuse, UCLA, Colorado State
Mast: VCU, Syracuse, Drake, Utah State
First four out
Dobbertean: Saint Louis, Colorado State, Ole Miss, Boise State
Lunardi: Wichita State, Saint Louis, Colorado State, Ole Miss
Palm: Utah State, Drake, Saint Louis, Boise State
Mast: Wichita State, Colorado State, Boise State, Saint Louis