2018 Championship “Week” Update: March 11

Congratulations to **deep breath** UMBC, Virginia, Kansas, Villanova, Montana, Cal State Fullerton, Marshall, Buffalo, North Carolina Central, San Diego State, Arizona, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Southern, and New Mexico State on their automatic bids to the NCAA tournament! Wow, that’s a lot of teams.

We’re up to 12 teams getting the automatic bid to the NIT by way of a regular season title but not managing to capture their conference tournament. That means that there will only be 20 teams getting at-large bids to the secondary tournament, but I feel fairly comfortable saying that if Marquette does not pick up an NCAA tournament berth, they’ll be safely in that group of 20.

We only have one bit of drama remaining for today. In the AAC and the SEC, both squads in the title games are on target for an at-large bid, so there’s virtually no change in anything regardless of who wins Maybe Houston gets bumped up a seed line if they drop Cincinnati like third period French,but that’s about it. In the Ivy League and the Sun Belt, those leagues are only getting one team in, so the teams are essentially the same in terms of seeing them somewhere below the #12 line.

The Atlantic 10, however, is a different story. Davidson bumped off #2 seed St. Bonaventure in the semifinals, and the Bonnies are almost assuredly safe without the win or the autobid. #1 seed Rhode Island, Davidson’s opponent in the title game, is even safer than St. Bonaventure. The Wildcats, however, aren’t getting in without a win on Sunday afternoon. If Davidson defeats the Rams, someone — Louisville? Saint Mary’s? Arizona State? Syracuse? Marquette? — is getting shoved out in exchange for them.

NCAA AUTOMATIC BIDS

Arizona (Pac-12)
Bucknell (Patriot League)
Buffalo (MAC)
College of Charleston (CAA)
Gonzaga (WCC)
Iona (MAAC)
Kansas (Big 12)
Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun)
LIU-Brooklyn (NEC)
Loyola-Chicago (Missouri Valley)
Marshall (Conference USA)
UMBC (America East)
Michigan (Big Ten)
Montana (Big Sky)
Murray State (OVC)
New Mexico State (WAC)
North Carolina Central (MEAC)
UNC-Greensboro (SoCon)
Radford (Big South)
San Diego State (Mountain West)
South Dakota State (Summit League)
Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
Texas Southern (SWAC)
Villanova (Big East)
Virginia (ACC)
Wright State (Horizon League)

NIT AUTOMATIC BIDS

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (SWAC)
UC Davis (Big West)
Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun)
Hampton (MEAC)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt)
Middle Tennessee State (C-USA)
Northern Kentucky (Horizon)
UNC-Asheville (Big South)
Rider (MAAC)
Southeastern Louisiana (Southland)
Vermont (America East)
Wagner (NEC)

AAC CHAMPIONSHIP (CBS)

2:30pm: #1 Cincinnati vs #3 Houston

ATLANTIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP (CBS)

12pm: #1 Rhode Island vs #3 Davidson

IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN2)

11am: #1 Harvard vs #2 Penn

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN)

12pm: #2 Tennessee vs #4 Kentucky

SUN BELT CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN2)

1pm: #2 Georgia State vs #4 UT Arlington