Welcome to March Madness 2026 Bid Stealer Watch!
As conference tournaments get underway, we will track all the conference tournaments that could produce bubble chaos with bid stealers. The conferences tracked here are the power 5 conferences of the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC, where the top of the conference teams are safely in the tournament with at-large bids if they do not win the conference tournament, and the Atlantic 10, Mid-American, Mountain West, and West Coast, where the regular season leaders are currently forecasted to make the Big Dance as an at-large, but where bid stealers still remain.
All other conferences are one-bid leagues, and those conference breakdowns can be found in our One-Bid Conference AQ watch.
For purposes of Bid Stealer Watch, we will break down the teams into four groups: Safely In, Bubble, Bid Stealers Still Alive, and Eliminated. Bubble teams would need an AQ to avoid the play-in games in Dayton, which could slide some “safely in” teams into lower seeds and possibly Dayton.
Atlantic 10 (March 11-15, Pittsburgh, PA)
Safely In: None
Bubble: Saint Louis, VCU
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Dayton, Saint Joseph’s, George Mason, Davidson, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, Rhode Island, Richmond, La Salle, St. Bonaventure, Loyola Chicago
Eliminated: None
ACC (March 10-14, Charlotte, NC)
Safely In: Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisville, Clemson, Miami (FL)
Bubble: NC State, SMU, Virginia Tech, Cal
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Florida State, Stanford, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame, Boston College
Eliminated: Georgia Tech
Big 12 (March 10-14, Kansas City, MO)
Safely In: Arizona, Houston, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, BYU
Bubble: UCF, TCU, Cincinnati
Bid Stealers Still Alive: West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State, Utah
Eliminated: None
Big East (March 11-14, New York City, NY)
Safely In: UConn, St. John’s, Villanova
Bubble: None
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Seton Hall, DePaul, Creighton, Providence, Butler, Xavier, Marquette, Georgetown
Eliminated: None
Big Ten (March 10-15, Chicago, IL)
Safely In: Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, UCLA
Bubble: Ohio State, Indiana, USC
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Minnesota, Washington, Rutgers, Northwestern, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State
Eliminated: None
Mid-American (March 12-14, Cleveland, OH)
Safely In: None
Bubble: Miami (OH)
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Akron, Kent State, Toledo, Ohio, Bowling Green, Buffalo, UMass, Central Michigan
Eliminated: Ball State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois
Mountain West (March 11-14, Las Vegas, NV)
Safely In: None
Bubble: Utah State, New Mexico, San Diego State
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Grand Canyon, UNLV, Boise State, Nevada, Colorado State, Wyoming, Fresno State, San Jose State, Air Force
Eliminated: None
SEC (March 11-15, Nashville, TN)
Safely In: Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Georgia
Bubble: Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas, Auburn
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Oklahoma, Miss State, Ole Miss, LSU, South Carolina
Eliminated: None
West Coast (March 5-10, Las Vegas, NV)
Safely In: Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s
Bubble: Santa Clara
Bid Stealers Still Alive: Oregon State, San Francisco, Pacific, Seattle, Washington State, Portland, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, Pepperdine
Eliminated: None
Starting Monday, March 9, Bid Steal Watch becomes a daily post until there are no more bid stealers available, so come back to check everything out.
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