Could the Sun Belt end up with two bids to the NCAA March Madness? The answer could be a yes, or it could be no. Unlike the BCS, not controlled by the NCAA, teams from all the conferences have a legitimate shot at becoming National Champions. To achieve the goal of giving everyone a shot at the title, most conferences are given one automatic bid which is generally the tournament champions. There is the rub.

What if a team has a 29-4 record and lose in their conference tournament? Nothing. For the most part they get to pack up and go home because conferences like the Sun Belt are for the most part a one bid conference. If you don't win your tournament you go home. A team with the same situation out of a multi-bid conference could pick up an At-Large bid. So a losing in the conference tournament is not as critical as a Sun Belt type conference.

Now to answer the question 'could the Sun Belt end up with two bids?

Middle Tennessee is 20-3, 9-0 going into the North Texas game. They nearly beat Vanderbilt before falling 77-84 as a result of cold shooting in the final few minutes. The loss really upset MTSU Head Basketball Coach Kermit Davis for several reasons. He's coached in the big name conferences and understand teams in Sun Belt like conferences with 20 or so wins will get shut out of the NCAA Tournament if they are upset in their conference tournament.

Another reason for him to be upset is the win over Vanderbilt would mostly likely landed MTSU in the top 25 for the first time in school history.

MTSU has wins over UCLA, Ole Miss, Akron and Belmont which has helped their RPI to be around the 50 mark. The NCAA likes to have the top 64 RPI teams in the tournament.

For sake of argument, if MTSU was able to win their last seven season games, win a couple in the Sun Belt Tournament before losing, they could have a 29-4 or so record and sit at home.

It would be interesting to see if another Sun Belt team won the conference tournament if the NCAA selection committee would reach down and pull MTSU into March Madness giving the Sun Belt two participates with a shot at the National Title.