The Crimson are In

We were mercifully spared a week of analysis about whether or not Harvard deserves an at-large thanks to Princeton going to Philly and beating Penn last night in the final game of the Ivy League season, giving Harvard sole claim to the league title and the corresponding at-large berth.

It's a big day for Championship week as the Big East Tournament has its second day, plus the start of the Big XII, Conference USA, and Pac-12 tournaments among others.

At the moment, with Harvard officially out of the at-large pool, we have 28 teams for 16 slots.

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT (Tues-Sat in New York)
*Format: You probably know by now, but all sixteen teams come to Madison Square Garden for an unwieldy five day, five round tournament littered with byes and double byes.

*TV: All 15 games will be on the ESPN family of networks with the title game in primetime on Saturday.

*At-Large Hopes: The Big East won't break its record of 11 bids from last season, but it very well could get 10. Seton Hall, UConn, West Virginia, South Florida, and Cincy all come into the tournament needing wins because of various holes in their resume. On the other hand, at this late stage, it's hard to construct a scenario where more than one of them miss the tournament so they key might not be so much to win as to avoid scarring damage. Seton Hall and UConn did that in the first round, with the Huskies than beating West Virginia in a huge matchup earlier today. Cincy actually got the double bye, but a loss could very well dip their RPI down to the 75 range. Seton Hall has a huge shot against Villanova tonight, and South Florida cannot afford a bad loss to Villanova in the night cap.

*Who to Watch: Syracuse is easily the class of the league and gets the benefit of two byes. Two of the other three schools who get to sit the first two nights would be hugely surprising winners. The best bet otherwise is the second seeded Marquette team led by Jae Crowder and Darrius Johnson-Odom. Look for Georgetown if you want a team that played today and has a shot. Their potential semifinal game against Syracuse could be especially bitter with the series possibly ending soon and the Orange squeaking out a win earlier this year in the Carrier Dome.

ATLANTIC TEN TOURNAMENT: (1st Round Tues at campus sites, QF/SF/Final Fri-Sat in Atlantic City)
*Format: Another example of doublespeak in a conference name, the A-10 invites its top 12 with Rhode Island and Fordham missing the field.

*TV: The rest of the tournament will be on the CBS family of networks with Sunday's championship on the flagship network at 1 and the rest on CBS Sports.

*At-Large Hopes: Plenty. Temple is in and Saint Louis looks to be a near lock. Xavier went from the top 10 to the bubble after their rumble in the Queen City with Cincy. St Joseph's is a fringe bubble team, and even UMass and Dayton could lay claim to an outside shot should they be able to win their next two games.

*Who to Watch: It's a wild tournament. The top two seeds are your favorites, but in reality any of the eight teams remaining have a non-trivial chance of winning the tournament. The good news for a team like UMass or Dayton is that they have two days to recover after winning what amounted to a play-in game yesterday meaning that, having won the extra game already, they're not likely to much more gassed than the teams with byes should they get to Sunday. In fact you could probably make an argument that the extra game will have kept them a bit sharper than their opening round opponents.

SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT (QF Wed, SF/Final Fri/Sat in Katy, TX)
*Format: Eight teams made it with Southeastern Louisiana, Central Arkansas, Texas State, and Texas A&M-CC left out.

*TV: The final is Saturday at 2PM on ESPN2.

*At-Large Hopes: This league is play-in fodder more often than anything else. The league has never gotten two bids and has one team advance to the round of 32 since 1985.

*Who to Watch: Texas-Arlington ripped through the league at 15-1 and will be the favorite. Lamar may well be the second best team. Their coach is named Pat Knight. You may remember him from such meltdowns as: last month's press conference and his brief tenure at Texas tech succeeding his father.