Final Championship Week Update

And we're done.  With the last four conference tournament championship games today, Championship Week is officially over.  There were some upsets today:  

• Florida State beat #4 North Carolina for the ACC crown.
• Vanderbilt beat #1 Kentucky for the SEC crown.  Maybe Vandy will make it past the first weekend in this year's NCAA tournament.
• St. Bonaventure beat Xavier for the A-10 crown, thus shrinking the bubble by one team.
• Michigan State beat Ohio State for the Big Ten crown, becoming the only Big 6 conference top seed to win its conference tournament and likely locking up an NCAA #1 seed in the process.

When it was all said and done, 19 conference tournaments out of 30 were won by teams that were not the #1 seed.  I take this to mean two things:  (1) conference tournaments screw the best teams in mid- and low-major conferences; and/or (2) how a team plays in the regular season isn't necessarily indicative of how it plays in the post season.


Tune into CBS at 6 p.m. Eastern (i.e., in a half hour) for the Selection Sunday special, where the brackets will be announced.  I'm giddy.  For the first time in four years, the Hoosiers' name will be called.  I only hope they aren't playing while I'm at work Thursday -- not that that will stop me from tuning in, thanks to the fact that every game is available live for free online.


Here is the list of the teams that clinched an automatic berth.  The * after a team means I correctly predicted they would win their conference titles in my original Championship Week Predictions.  I got 15 of 30 correct.  Whatevs.

Automatic berths (with the number of NCAA tournament appearances, including 2012):

ACC - Florida State (14)
America East - Vermont (5)
Atlantic Sun - Belmont* (5)
Atlantic 10 - St. Bonaventure (6)
Big East - Louisville (38)
Big Sky - Montana* (9)
Big South - UNC-Asheville* (3)
Big Ten - Michigan State (26)
Big 12 - Missouri* (25)
Big West - Long Beach State* (6)
Colonial - VCU (11)
Conference USA - Memphis* (20)
Horizon - Detroit (6)
Ivy - Harvard* (2)
MAC - Ohio (13)
MAAC - Loyola (Md.) (2)
MEAC - Norfolk State* (1)
Missouri Valley - Creighton (18)
Mountain West - New Mexico (13)
Northeast - LIU* (5)
Ohio Valley - Murray State* (15)
Pac-12 - Colorado (11)
Patriot - Lehigh* (5)
SEC - Vanderbilt (13)
Southern - Davidson* (11)
Southland - Lamar* (6)
Summit - South Dakota State* (1)
Sun Belt - Western Kentucky (22)
SWAC - Mississippi Valley State (5)
WAC - New Mexico State (16)
West Coast - St. Mary's* (7)