What does it take to make the NCAA Tournament? It changes every year. While the selection committee is mostly to blame for this inconsistency, its starting to become clear that ESPN and their brickheaded analysts are partly responsible for an idiotic case of groupthink. They discover a theme towards the end of the season, a criteria that some (mostly non-marquee) teams lack that is satisfied by underachieving, money-making teams. This year it seems to be "quality wins". Not quality wins as in beating a team in the top 100 of the RPI, but quality win as in South Carolina beat Kentucky on their best night of the year and we will ignore the fact that you went 13-10 otherwise and lost a host of questionable games. This of course is bad news for Virginia Tech, who faces a triple standard on the bubble every single year. Now that they are on a roll in the ACC, suddenly their league wins aren't good enough and despite going 13-1 in the nonconference schedule and facing four BCS teams in the process (does it matter that theyre having bad years?) they did not have an "overwhleming" nonconference performance. Once again - you need to win league games, but when you do there is some other problem. And you need to avoid bad losses, but when you do the teams you beat arent good enough. Its all BS. Joe Lunardi congratulated Tech for a "revenge" win over UVA, which shows he hasnt even looked at their schedule and seen their win in Charlottesville last month. Maybe it was revenge for UVA's win in football in 2003? Another gem came from Doug Gottleib, who said that Tech has to win a non-existent game at Maryland to deserve an at-large. Since they don't even play at Maryland this year, I guess thats the final step in keeping the undesireables away from the NCAA Tournament - make them win games that arent even scheduled.
ACC
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Georgia Tech (16-8, 5-6 RPI 29); Maryland (15-7, 6-3 RPI 42); Clemson (18-7, 6-5 RPI 34); Florida State (18-7, 6-5 RPI 45); Virginia Tech (20-4, 7-3 RPI 50); Virginia (14-8, 5-4 RPI 95)
Treading Water: None
Atlantic 10
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Rhode Island (19-5, 7-4 RPI 23); Xavier (17-7, 8-2 RPI 20); Richmond (20-6, 9-2 RPI 27); Dayton (17-7, 6-4 RPI 32); Charlotte (18-6, 8-2 RPI 41)
Treading Water: Saint Louis (15-8, 7-3 RPI 91)
Big East
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Louisville (16-9, 7-5 RPI 42); Cincinnati (15-9, 6-6 RPI 46); Marquette (16-8, 7-5 RPI 56)
Treading Water: Notre Dame (17-9, 6-7 RPI 78); Connecticut (14-11, 4-8 RPI 61); South Florida (15-9, 5-7 RPI 54); Seton Hall (14-9, 5-7 RPI 55)
Big Ten
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Illinois (17-9, 9-4 RPI 70)
Treading Water: Northwestern (16-8, 5-7 RPI 77); Minnesota (14-10, 5-7 RPI 83)
Big 12
Locks: 
Near Locks: Baylor (18-5, 6-4 RPI 17)
Bubble: Oklahoma State (17-7, 5-5 RPI 39); Missouri (18-7, 6-4 RPI 46); Texas Tech (15-8, 4-6 RPI 37)
Treading Water: Oklahoma (13-11; 4-6 RPI 88)
Conference USA
Locks: None
Near Locks: None
Bubble: UAB (19-5, 7-3 RPI 38); Tulsa (18-6, 8-3 RPI 68); UTEP (19-5, 10-1 RPI 56); Memphis (18-7, 8-2 RPI 60)
Treading Water: Marshall (15-7, 6-4 RPI 69)
Missouri Valley
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Wichita State (20-6, 10-5 RPI 47)
Treading Water: None
Mountain West
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: UNLV (18-6, 7-4 RPI 36); San Diego State (16-7, 7-4 RPI 40)
Treading Water: None
Pac 10
Locks: None
Near Locks: California (17-8, 9-4 RPI 23)
Bubble: Arizona State (18-8, 8-5 RPI 64); Washington (17-8, 7-6 RPI 52)
Treading Water: None
SEC
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: Florida (17-8, 6-4 RPI 59); Mississippi State (18-7, 6-4 RPI 58); South Carolina (14-10, 5-5 RPI 71); Mississippi (17-7, 5-5 RPI 48)
Treading Water: None
West Coast
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: St. Mary’s (20-5, 8-3 RPI 44)
Treading Water: Portland (15-8, 7-3 RPI 79)
Others
Locks: 
Near Locks: None
Bubble: William & Mary (17-7, 10-5 RPI 51-CAA); Cornell (19-4, 7-1 RPI 53-Ivy); Old Dominion (20-7, 12-3 RPI 33-CAA); Siena (22-5, 15-1 RPI 35-MAAC); Utah State (19-6, 10-2 RPI 43-WAC)
Treading Water: VCU (17-7, 9-6 RPI 66-CAA; Louisiana Tech (20-5, 8-3 RPI 75-WAC); Murray State (22-3, 15-0 RPI 82-OVC); Northeastern (17-9, 12-3 RPI 62-CAA); Kent State (17-8, 9-3 RPI 63-MAC); Sam Houston State (14-5, 10-0 RPI 74-Southland); Oakland (18-8, 14-1 RPI 65-MidCon)
