F Morris Udeze, New Mexico Lobos. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
The bubble is very tight in the leadup to March Madness, but these five bid thieves could knock out teams like UNC or Michigan.
Part of the fun of Championship Week is the potential for bid thieves to surface and cause some chaos in the projected brackets. For our purposes, a bid thief is a team that doesn’t have a strong enough resume to make the NCAA Tournament on its own merits, thus requiring a victory in the conference tournament to secure an automatic bid to the dance.
Mid-major leagues are usually the homes to most bid thieves but there are actually a few unique circumstances that could create a bid thief in power conferences this season. Let’s break down the five teams most likely to become bid thieves and who you should be rooting against if your favorite team is on the bubble right now.
5. Potential March Madness Bid Thieves – New Mexico Lobos
It sure seems like a long time ago when New Mexico was one of the last undefeated teams in the country. Conference play wasn’t kind to the Lobos, however, as New Mexico went just 8-10 in the Mountain West.
Five of those losses came to teams in the bottom half of the conference, torpedoing New Mexico’s metrics and forcing them to win the automatic bid to go dancing. Richard Pitino’s team does have the ability to win big games away from the Pit, however, including a road victory at top-seeded San Diego State earlier this season.
The path to the auto bid won’t be easy for the Lobos, who have to knock off Wyoming in the first round before earning a shot at bubble team Utah State in the quarters. New Mexico will need to knock off the Mountain West’s top three teams, in all likelihood, to earn a bid but there is simply too much talent here to ignore the possibility that they (or another bid thief) emerge from the highly competitive Mountain West.
