Bubble Banter: Washington, Alabama both in same spot — who woulda guessed?

Dave Ommen

Feb 9, 2011, 1:59 PM EDT

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Welcome to Bubble Banter. In our latest update (Feb. 9), four teams have left and three have joined the bubble. Two of the joiners are Washington and Minnesota, who we can no longer consider as Should Be In. We’re now at 37 bubble teams with 15 spots available. The next two weeks should help pare down the field; then we’ll have a more accurate look at the overall picture. More at Bracketville.

Bubble Banter highlights the teams we believe are on the NCAA Bubble. If a team isn’t listed, they aren’t a bubble team at the time of the update. RPI and SOS data is credited to CollegeRPI.com.

UPDATED: Wednesday, February 9

Automatic Bids (31): None decided | Total Spots (68): Number of total teams in the Field.

Projected Locks (10): Teams who project to have secured a spot in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Some of these projected locks may become automatic qualifiers should they win their conference tournament.
Should Be In (16): While not yet locks, these are teams in good position to receive an at-large bid.
Bubble: (37): Teams projected to be at or near the cutline for being selected as at-large candidates, or those whose profiles are not yet complete enough to be considered as Should Be In as of the this update.
Spots available (15): Number of available openings for the bracket based on spots reserved for automatic qualifiers, projected locks, and teams projected as Should Be In at this update.
Leaving the Bubble: Butler, Rhode Island, California, Northern Iowa
Joining the Bubble: Minnesota, Washington, Alabama

Below is a conference breakdown of the bubble picture