After Sunday's stumble against FIU in the Sun Belt semifinals, questions immediately arose as to whether Middle Tennessee State has a legitimate shot at an at-large bid to the tournament. The best comparison is last year's Iona team, who made the field in spite of not having any wins against the at-large field in 2012. But the Gaels did have five wins against the RPI top 100, while the Blue Raiders have just two. They did have a pretty solid win against Ole Miss in December, but that's pretty much all they've done this year aside from having a stellar 12-4 record away from home. At the end of the day, however, it doesn't seem like it will be enough. There are just one or two at-large bids up for grabs at this point, and I would think the selection committee would be more inclined to award the last bid or two to teams like Tennessee or Baylor who have very impressive wins. It's a shame, because MTSU could have done some major damage in the tournament.
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