Tyler has pretty much covered the ACC-Big 10 "Challenge", so I figured I'd give a quick mid-major, low high-major update.
So far, we have very few "standout" mid-major teams. Gonzaga and Davidson are of course virtual shoe-ins. Xavier is more of a low major than a mid major, but they are also very impressive.
This is a list of teams who have impressed me so far and deserve bubble consideration from their solid early season performance.
Butler Bulldogs: It's still early, but they have played some decent competition and gotten some solid early season wins. Beating Drake on the road, Northwestern and Evansville all appear to be solid wins. The Horizon league is much improved this year, as Cleveland State, Illinois-Chicago and Wisconsin-Green Bay all have solid teams this year. Butler will not go undefeated in the Horizon and winning the league tourney will also be tough, so Butler needs to continue to win bigg OOC games. They have quite a few opportunities coming up, with games against Bradley, Ohio State, UAB and Xavier coming up. 2-2 would be very good and 3-1 could help secure them a bubble spot provided they continue to dominate in Horizon League play.
Dayton Flyers: 7-0 start, a top 25 win and a BCS win on a neutral court, what more can you ask? Beating Auburn and Marquette are very solid wins, but beating Akron and Creighton in their next two games would be HUGE OOC wins for them and could secure them a bubble spot provided they don't crash and burn in the very rugged A-10. Dayton also has a chance to pick up some much needed RPI points with an OOC game at home against George Mason. 2-1 in those 3 games would be a huge boost to Dayton's tourney resume. Chris Wright is a very good player and should help lead Dayton in the tough A-10.
Rhode Island: How about that Jimmy Baron? Can that kid shoot or what? While they really needed one of those wins against Duke or Villanova, they did get a very good win over VCU and a surprising Penn St. team. Northeastern could also be a solid win by the end of the season. They will have a chance to pick off some more teams in conference play, but two must win games for them are Oklahoma St. and at Providence. Those two solid BCS wins and a good A-10 record could get them in the discussion. Right now though, they are on the outside looking in.
Illinois State: Hard to tell about the Redbirds right now. They haven't played many good teams, but they are 7-0 and should be 11-0 starting MVC play. They won't have any marquee OOC wins which will hurt them, but provided they can win some big MVC games, they could garner some attention for a bubble spot as well. Osirus Eldridge is a hell of a basketball player, he could be one of the best players in the country that BCS cronies have never heard of. Overall though, the lack of a good OOC win will probably keep Illinois State on the wrong side of the bubble, but if they can rack up alot of good in conference wins, they could be dancing.
Almost the entire Mountain West: Wow. Talk about a loaded low-major. Every team in the Mountain West with the exception of Colorado State (3-4) and New Mexico (3-4) has a winning record. UNLV is 6-2, Wyoming is a 1 point loss to Boise St. from being 6-0 and both will get the MWC big RPI points. San Diego St. is also 6-1 and with its only loss being by 7 points to Arizona State, SDSU is in the discussion. They need to pull off wins at Arizona and against St. Mary's to get some marquee OOC wins to stay in the discussion.
Utah is very much in the bubble convo at 5-1 with their only loss being a 1 point loss at home to Southwestern Baptist (how did that happen?) and with very good early season wins against Ole Miss, Oregon, Wisconsin GB and at Missouri St. They have several more opportunites to get marquee wins with games against Cal, Oklahoma, Utah State, Gonzaga and LSU on the horizon. A couple wins there and a good regular season in the MWC should have these guys dancing.
BYU is again, a very solid team. They don't have any big time OOC Wins yet, but they are 7-0 and cruising right along. As a matter of fact, no one has been within double digits of them this year. They have won their first 7 games by a combined margin of 155 points. Yikes. That's an average margin of over 22 points a game. Granted, they haven't played the best competition, but that is getting it done. They will have a chance to get marquee wins coming soon enough though, with games against Arizona State and Wake Forest. They are definetly in the tourney right now and a win against either team would help secure them a spot.
Western Kentucky: The Hilltoppers are a tough team to figure out this year. They have very quality players, and when they are on, they are very tough to beat. Just ask Southern Illinois, Louisville and Georgia. But at the same time, a loss to Houston and a 28 point blowout loss to Murray State are very troubling. Since they are very early season losses and they have won their last 3 against VERY good competition, WKU is going to get the benefit of the doubt from me and I am going to say they are in right now. They can help themselves quite a bit though by getting a road wins at Tulane and Evansville and pulling off one more marquee win at Miss St. If they can do that, they should be in. However, the Sun Belt is a VERY frisky league this year and they are going to need to stay focused all the way through. A couple slip ups to lesser teams in the Sun Belt and losses in tough games against the likes of Arkansas St., North Texas and South Alabama could spell the end for WKU. My gut feeling is they will be ok though, but they should be an interesting team to watch throughout the year.
St. Mary's: tHe Gaels were very dissapointing in the tourney last year, but they are a year older and a year better now and are playing some quality basketball. A early season slip-up to UTEP was offset by a good win on a neutral court against Providence. They have a couple chances for solid wins coming up against Kent St., San Diego St, Oregon and Southern Illinois. They would also do themselves a huge favor by picking off Gonzaga in one of their two and possibly 3 opportunities this year. They need some things to fall right for them to get into the tourney this year, but they can help themselves tremendously by picking off Gonzaga at least once. They are a bubble team who needs to win some big games.
Utah State: Another undefeated team who has yet to play anyone. That will change very soon, however, as their next game is home against BYU. Two undefeated teams playing at home in what should be an absolute war. Only one team has stayed within double digits of Utah State as well this year. Beating BYU would be huge for them as would picking off Utah. The Wac is always tough, so those key OOC games are huge because they aren't going to run the table in the WAC. They are an interesting case so far with an undefeated record but zero quality wins. They are a wait and see bubble team.
