NCAA Tournament Field Predictions

I haven't done this in three years, but the presence of USC, Texas, and Tennessee is enough reason for me to forecast the 65 teams that will make up the field. I wanted to squeeze this in before the selection committee announces the official teams so I can say "Ha! I told you!". So here are my 65 teams that will make it to the NCAA Tournament. I have grouped the teams according to their conference, with the conference tournament champion as the first team and the rest of the teams according to their predicted seeding in the tournament.

I will also mention the last five teams in and last five out of the tournament at the end.

A-EAST        Albany

ACC           North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland,
             Boston College, Duke

A-SUN         Belmont

A-10          George Washington, Xavier

BIG 12        Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas State

BIG EAST      Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Marquette,
             Louisville, Syracuse, Villanova

BIG SKY       Weber StateBIG SOUTH     Winthrop

BIG TEN       Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State,
             Purdue

BIG WEST      Long Beach State

CAA           VCU, Old Dominion, Drexel

CUSA          Memphis

HORIZON       Wright State, Butler

IVY           Penn

MAAC          Niagara

MID-CONT      Oral Roberts

MAC           Miami (OH)

MEAC          Florida A&M

MVC           Creighton, Southern Illinois, Missouri State

MWC           Brigham Young, UNLV

NEC           Central Connecticut State

OVC           Eastern Kentucky

PAC 10        Oregon, UCLA, Washington State, USC, Arizona

PATRIOT       Holy Cross

SEC           Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky

SOUTHERN      Davidson

SOUTHLAND     *Texas A&M Corpus Christi

SWAC          Jackson State

SUN BELT      North Texas

WCC           Gonzaga

WAC           New Mexico State, Nevada

* or winner of Texas A&M CC and Northwestern State

Before Saturday, I thought this year's field is fairly weak at the bottom. Lots of the teams would have been bubbled out in other years but made the field this year. However, with a round of upsets in conference tournament finals, some of those bubble teams were knocked out. The automatic qualifier for New Mexico State, Wright State, and George Washington means three spots were taken from West Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Mississippi State, which were my last three teams out. Now, let's see how accurate my predictions are!