The question has become fairly common: Who has the best chance to earn the three additional NCAA tournament berths available in the new 68-team field?
The "official" answer is simple: The next three teams on the at-large board, regardless of conference affiliation, will complete the expanded NCAA bracket. But what does history tell us about at-large selections in general?
The past decade (2001-10) has resulted in continued dominance of the field by teams from the so-called BCS conferences. In each of those 10 seasons, there were 40 spots available for anywhere from 68 (2001) to 73 (2010) "power six" conference members. The 40 berths include six automatic bids from the respective BCS conferences, plus the 34 at-large positions for which all schools compete.
The chart below shows how well the power six leagues did in claiming 40 slots available to them:
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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.
