Lucky number 13

It takes 13 teams to be seeded below you to get a 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament these days, and Penn may have finally gotten the help to do that yesterday, with thrilling wins by Albany and Miami-Ohio.

With 30 automatic bids given out so far, there are currently nine teams that are certainly below Penn (ESPN RPI No. 87 as of Saturday), and four teams that might be. The four teams to root against at 6 p.m. are Albany (No. 91), Long Beach State (No. 86), Oral Roberts (No. 89) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (No. 82).

TAMU-CC isn't in the Big Dance yet, though. They still have to win their Southland Conference final today against last year's cinderella 14-seed, Northwestern State, at 2 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). A Demons win (No. 166) would eliminate one of the four maybes.

Right now, ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi has Penn ahead of these four teams, and if you put a gun to my head, I would say Penn would get a 13. But I am really not confident at all.

The other game today that might have an effect on Penn is the ACC final at 1 p.m., featuring Penn opponent North Carolina against upstart NC State. And it's a real conundrum. The Wolfpack have an RPI of 97 right now, but I cannot believe that the committee would seed them below Penn, and that a win in the ACC tourney, playing four games in four days would earn NC State an 11 or a 12 seed. The committee has shown a tendency in the past to overvalue conference tournaments. A UNC win would also give the Quakers a tiny RPI boost, and would keep a spot open in the field for a team like Drexel, which Penn (and all of Philadelphia, I think) would like to get in the Tournament.

If you really want to root in the other three games today, here's the most Penn-centric thing I can come up with.

Take Florida over Arkansas (SEC final, 1 p.m.). Neither team has played one of Penn's opponents this year, so their RPI effect is 0. But a Razorbacks win might also steal the Dragons' spot, so hope the Gators keep their once-again-found stride going.

Root for Kansas over Texas (Big 12 final, 3 p.m.). KU's opponent's opponent score is 2-1 over Texas, but that makes no difference in practice and because the game is so late. But in my slightly convoluted logic, Texas might possibly fall to a 4-seed if they lose, which might possibly bump Penn up to a 12, because the Quakers are not allowed to play the Longhorns two years in a row. Of course, that could also bump Penn down to a 14, but who knows.

Finally, root for Wisconsin over Ohio State (Big Ten final, 3:30 p.m.). The Buckeyes have played one Penn opponent, and the Badgers have not (utterly irrelevant), and a Wisconsin win might hurt UNC's 1-seed chances (doesn't mean anything to Penn at all). So root for Wisconsin because Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor played Penn the Palestra their freshman year (and then demolished the Quakers the next year in Madison). It's completely arbitrary, I know, but it's the best I got.

Only eight hours from the real madness. I hope you've enjoyed The Buzz's coverage of this week for you.