NCAA Tournament Mvc

The jury is still way, way out on if the Big Ten will prove that it deserved seven NCAA Tournament bids, but Purdue ensured that one of the conference's higher seeds would be around for the weekend. The fifth-seed Boilermakers fought off No. 12-seed Northern Iowa, 61-56 in the West Region's first round.

The 5-vs.-12 matchup always carries heightened upset potential, and Northern Iowa looked fully capable of bouncing the Boilermakers, entering Thursday's game winners of five straight, which included the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship. Purdue led by as much as 14 early in the second half before Northern Iowa came back. But with the game at a classic Big Ten pace, Purdue managed to hold on.

---

---

Among the big story lines from Sunday's filling out of the NCAA basketball tournament field, discussions of conferences who are "overrated" and "underrated" dominated the discussion. Specifically, fans of so-called mid-major teams cried foul, and the masses proclaimed the selection committee was biased in favor of the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences.

Well, the third banana in college basketball post-season action has been announced (PDF). I know, like many of you, it was with baited breath to find out the field of sixteen.

The CBI did secure teams from the Pac-10, Big East and Mountain West. So, well, they can claim major conference participation. Whether anyone watches the games is a different matter. Four of the eight opening games will be airing on something called HD Net. I'm reasonably certain I have it, but I can't say I've ever watched it.

The snubbed teams like St. Mary's, Creighton, San Diego State and Penn State will get their chance to make their argument that they were deserving of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament over Arizona, Minnesota, and well... that's about it.

The top four seeds in the NIT are San Diego State, Auburn, Creighton and Florida. The SEC packed the second tier tournament with four teams.