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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
None
Bubble Teams
Pitt (OUT)
Clemson (OUT)
North Carolina (OUT)
NC State (OUT)
In
Miami (OUT)
Duke (Auto-bid)
Virginia (OUT)
American
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Memphis
In
Houston
Big East
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Providence (OUT)
In
Marquette (Auto-bid)
UConn (OUT)
Xavier (OUT)
Creighton (OUT)
Big Ten
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Rutgers (OUT)
Penn State
Michigan (OUT)
In
Purdue
Northwestern (OUT)
Indiana (OUT)
Michigan State (OUT)
Iowa (OUT)
Maryland (OUT)
Illinois (OUT)
Big 12
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Oklahoma State (OUT)
West Virginia (OUT)
In
Kansas (OUT)
Texas (Auto-bid)
Kansas State (OUT)
Baylor (OUT)
Iowa State (OUT)
TCU (OUT)
Conference USA
Thieves
UAB (OUT)
Bubble Teams
Florida Atlantic (Auto-Bid)
Mountain West
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Boise State (OUT)
Utah State (Out)
Nevada (OUT)
In
San Diego State (Auto-bid)
Pac-12
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Arizona State (OUT)
Oregon (OUT)
In
UCLA (Out)
Arizona 9Auto-bid)
USC (OUT)
SEC
Thieves
None
Bubble Teams
Mississippi State (OUT)
Auburn (OUT)
Arkansas (OUT)
Vaderbilt (OUT)
In
Alabama (Auto-bid)
Texas A&M (OUT)
Kentucky (OUT)
Missouri (OUT)
Tennessee (OUT)