Trying to follow who is in or out of the NCAA tourney requires a special skill. Most fans do not make that kind of investment into the process and just wait for the selection show. The fans we have spoken to on KTIK, and there were very few, or I have to spoke to in person, really only want to know whether Boise State is in or not. I have not heard many arguments either way.

The process is complicated and features teams not on the radar of most fans.

In college football, post season bowl predictors are really only concerned with 10 teams going to BCS games and maybe 4 more who have a shot.  It is one thing to ask a college football fan in Boise to follow Notre Dame or Florida football to understand who is in or out of the BCS bowl games. But how much can we expect local college basketball fans to know about the following basketball schools either in or on the bubble for the 2013 tourney?

Florida Gulf Coast, Morgan State, James Madison, Southern Mississippi, Ole Miss, Liberty, Valpo, Harvard, Iona, LIU-Brooklyn, Belmont, Bucknell, Davidson, South Dakota State , Western Kentucky.

This time of year in college basketball, 72 teams will be dancing and another 20 “on the bubble”.  It’s like following the major league baseball draft vs. the NFL draft. Once the tourney field is set and the games start, the Cinderella stories are defined and fans are spun stories by studio hosts on the schools to follow. Once the field is down to the Sweet 16, the real conversation games begin.