There’s 32 spots in the field, and NCAA Bid Thiefs could limit the available space for the Golden Eagles.
Marquette women’s basketball saw their visit to the Big East tournament end after one game, leaving the Golden Eagles with a record of 20-10 on the season. Winning 67% of your basketball games is clearly enough to warrant some kind of postseason appearance, even if it’s quite clear that Marquette is going to get left out of the NCAA tournament.
And so, we start paying attention to the WBIT.
That’s the secondary tournament that the NCAA started up last season. Yes, there had been a WNIT since 1998, but that has never been owned and operated by the NCAA. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the NCAA has come under a bit of fire in the past few years about the level of equality between the men’s and women’s basketball postseasons, and so starting up a secondary tournament for women’s hoops is an obvious solution to that problem.
Thus, the WBIT was born last year, and congrats to Illinois for winning the first one.
What’s the selection process for this 32 team event? Simple!
The NCAA tournament selection committee will identify the First Four Teams Out of that event, and those four teams will be the top four seeds in the WBIT. Then any regular season conference champion that did not make their way into the NCAA tournament also get an at-large bid to the WBIT. Then it’s time to fill in the remaining spots until you get to 32 teams.
So knowing how many spots are taken up by regular season champs is important, and that’s what we’re doing here.
After close of business on Wednesday night, 16 conferences have wrapped up their tournaments. We already know that the 16th tournament will provide a winner that is not the regular season champion, as that’s the Mountain West and UNLV did not make it to the title game. Through 16 events, we have seven regular season champions who did not emerge victorious. Two of those teams are projected to earn at-large bids in the NCAA field, leaving five spots in the 32 team WBIT field spoken for at the moment.
27 spots left to go. Could be another 15 taken up by conference champs, and another four spots could go to the First Four Out list. There might be as few as eight spots to fill.
We’ll continue to track this as the week continues and more automatic bids are handed out.
REGULAR SEASON CHAMPION BUT IN ESPN’s BRACKET
ACC: NC State
Big Ten: USC
CLINCHED A SPOT IN THE WBIT:
AAC: Texas-San Antonio
A10: Richmond
Mountain West: UNLV
Sun Belt: James Madison
West Coast: Gonzaga
America East
Regular Season Champion: Albany
Tournament Champion: Friday, March 14
American Athletic
Regular Season Champion: Texas-San Antonio
Tournament Champion: South Florida
Atlantic 10
Regular Season Champion: Richmond
Tournament Champion: George Mason
ACC
Regular Season Champion: NC State
Tournament Champion: Duke
ASUN
Regular Season Champion: Florida Gulf Coast
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
Big 12
Regular Season Champion: TCU
Tournament Champion: TCU
Big East
Regular Season Champion: UConn
Tournament Champion: UConn
Big Sky
Regular Season Champion: Montana State
Tournament Champion: Montana State
Big South
Regular Season Champion: High Point
Tournament Champion: High Point
Big Ten
Regular Season Champion: USC
Tournament Champion: UCLA
Big West
Regular Season Champion: Hawaii
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
CAA
Regular Season Champion: North Carolina A&T
Tournament Champion: Sunday, March 16
Conference USA
Regular Season Champion: Liberty
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
Horizon League
Regular Season Champion: Green Bay
Tournament Champion: Green Bay
Ivy League
Regular Season Champion: Columbia
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
MAAC
Regular Season Champion: Fairfield
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
MAC
Regular Season Champion: Ball State
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
MEAC
Regular Season Champion: Norfolk State
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
Missouri Valley
Regular Season Champion: Murray State
Tournament Champion: Sunday, March 16
Mountain West
Regular Season Champion: UNLV
Tournament Champion: Wednesday, March 12
NEC
Regular Season Champion: Fairleigh Dickinson
Tournament Champion: Sunday, March 16
Ohio Valley
Regular Season Champion: Tennessee Tech
Tournament Champion: Tennessee Tech
Patriot League
Regular Season Champion: Lehigh
Tournament Champion: Sunday, March 16
SEC
Regular Season Champion: South Carolina
Tournament Champion: South Carolina
Southern
Regular Season Champion: UNC Greensboro
Tournament Champion: UNC Greensboro
Southland
Regular Season Champion: Southeastern Louisiana
Tournament Champion: Thursday, March 13
SWAC
Regular Season Champion: Southern
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15
Summit League
Regular Season Champion: South Dakota State
Tournament Champion: South Dakota State
Sun Belt
Regular Season Champion: James Madison
Tournament Champion: Arkansas State
West Coast
Regular Season Champion: Gonzaga
Tournament Champion: Oregon State
WAC
Regular Season Champion: Grand Canyon
Tournament Champion: Saturday, March 15