Mid-Major bubble busters

It happens ever single year, whether there are 64 teams or 68 or 152 teams - someone is going to feel like they got left out of the tournament. However, one way to avoid all of that is going ahead and winning your conference tournament title.

Of course, only 30 teams qualify from conference tournaments leaving just the Ivy League regular season champion and 37 other at-large teams to qualify. That means space is indeed limited for the so-called "big boys" of college basketball.

Well, with nearly ever mid-major conference tournament underway it's time for the "big boys" to start getting nervous. Why? That's because some of those 37 at-large bids may just end up going to deserving mid-major teams that didn't pull out conference championships this year and that's where we come in.

This week we'll be looking at and adding our list of "bid stealers" from the ranks of the mid-majors. So, let's take a look at who we think makes the tournament without winning their conference tournament, shall we?


Middle Tennessee State:
The Blue Raiders are a classic case of a bid-stealer. No way was the Sun Belt good enough on the season to warrant two teams in the NCAA tournament, right? Well, MTSU went ahead and proved that wrong, losing in the conference tournament semi-finals by four points to Florida International, 61-57.

However, those Blue Raiders fans out there shouldn't have anything to worry about. This is a team that went 28-4 on the season as a whole and as an RPI currently of 28th (according to RealTimeRPI.com) and they own wins over UCF, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt in the non-conference season to add to a 19-1 Sun Belt record. If they don't get in to the NCAA tournament that's a serious, serious crime.