As snow and sleet again pummel the Northeast corridor, thoughts turn about 2,000 miles west to Provo, Utah, where tonight one of the biggest non-BCS matchups in recent memory is set between the San Diego State Aztecs and Brigham Young Cougars. Class designations aside, these are two excellent teams squaring off for the first of up to three meetings between now and Selection Sunday.
And, at least for San Diego State, a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament is on the line.
The last non-BCS school to attain a No. 1 seed was Memphis (2006, 2008). Before that, only Saint Joseph's (2004), Cincinnati (2002), Massachusetts (1996), UNLV (1987, 1990, 1991) and Temple (1988) have reached the top line from outside the six power conferences in the 64-team era.
The most recently appropriate comparison to SDSU from this list is Saint Joseph's in '04. Memphis is an admittedly different animal, so what we're essentially comparing are two once-in-a-lifetime teams from the Mountain West and Atlantic 10, respectively.
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College Basketball Experts
Fran Fraschilla is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at New Mexico, St. John's and Manhattan.
Joe Lunardi is the resident bracketologist for ESPN.
Seth Greenberg is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at Virginia Tech, South Florida and Long Beach State.
