Bracketology 2023: Ranking all 18 teams on the bubble in terms of safety

There are only a few precious days left before Selection Sunday and the beginning of this year’s edition of the NCAA Tournament. A solid number of conference tournaments have already been completed and we already know more than a dozen teams that will be in the field of 68. Further conference tournaments continue up through Sunday, while around two dozen other teams have already secured their place even if they lose in their conference tournaments this week.

We’re on the precipice of another great March Madness, but we still haven’t quite figured out who those final few teams will be. This latest edition of Bubble Watch includes everything that’s happened through Thursday night’s action, with just three days left for some of these teams to prove that they belong in the Big Dance. We’ll be ranking the current standing of these bubble teams, starting with those who are safest and working towards the teams fighting for their tournament lives.

Before we get into those bubble teams, we’ll take a moment to look at the teams that are no longer on the bubble. First and foremost, both Charleston and Oral Roberts have already secured their place in the Big Dance by winning their conference tournaments. They will not have to sweat out Selection Sunday. Florida Atlantic remains a favorite in the Conference USA Tournament but should be safely in the Tournament if they are upended in the coming days.

On the other hand, the poor play of several teams has led to their bubbles already being burst. Most notably, North Carolina was the preseason favorite but will fall short of the Big Dance, falling in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday to Virginia; a team that desperately needed more impressive performances.

The last few days have also seen a pair of Big Ten teams lose hope, with Wisconsin falling in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament and Michigan completely falling apart in their second half against Rutgers early on Thursday. Neither team should be in the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, Nevada has really fallen off these last few weeks and their loss to San Jose State likely has cost them any chance of a bid, while New Mexico’s fall from grace is very similar. One final team worth mentioning is Texas Tech, who are already hunting for their next head coach and did not win enough games down the stretch.

With those teams out of the picture, let’s start with those most solidly in the field and work towards the ones with work ahead of them these last three days. One final thing to keep in mind is that all NET figures are from Thursday morning and have not been recalculated to include the effect of Thursday’s important slate.