The Ohio Valley Conference will play its conference championship game Saturday, the first of 31 such games across Division I.
But because both Lindenwood and Southern Indiana — each playing in Friday’s OVC semifinals — are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament, we may be just hours away from finding out whether the league’s automatic berth will go to Tennessee Tech or Western Illinois.
Eight more automatic bids will be won Sunday, including in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC. And by the end of Monday, the Big East will join the party, marking the end of play for the traditional power conferences.
This is the last chance for teams on the bubble to make a statement to the selection committee. And sometimes, those games come against one another.
On Wednesday, a surging Washington team in the Last Four In took on a Minnesota team in the First Four Out.
Washington advanced, and even after a Thursday loss to Michigan, the Huskies appear likely to end on the right side of the bubble while Minnesota, which won just two of its final 10 games, does not.
It was a similar story Thursday as Colorado took down Arizona to reenter the field while the Wildcats’ late-season push came up short.
But some…
