re: Conference Tournament Week - (Bid Stealer Tracker)

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So you think 11 SEC teams are in? If so, saying they are a lock is fair. Also, since you singled out UF in your reply. Let's say LSU wins, UF wins the tourney (or makes the finals) and Bama loses Tuesday, is Bama still in? If you think 11 are in, that's fine. But if not, then who is left out?

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I don’t think there’s any magic number of SEC teams in the tournament field. The fact that no conference has gotten 11 bids before doesn’t mean there’s some hard and fast rule against it. There’s never been a situation where what is clearly the best conference has 5 teams in spots 7-11 so closely qualified. There’s no scenario under which I see only 6 SEC teams in the field. If #7 is in, and there’s no reason to think they aren’t, then 8-11 should follow closely behind. The only real differentiator I see is the possibility of Florida’s poor overall record keeping them out. The only thing keeping me from saying the other 3 are locks is the possibility of bid thieves. Even then, I think it would take a lot of chaos for less than 10 SEC teams to be in the field.