March Madness arrives with a waiting game for the Tar Heels and Longhorns on Selection Sunday

For bubble teams North Carolina and Texas, Selection Sunday will feel like the longest day of the year.

For top seeds in waiting like Duke and Auburn, making it into the NCAA Tournament isn’t a matter of if, only when and where.

The March Madness bracket will be revealed Sunday evening, setting the schedule for more than two weeks of competition in a season that saw the Southeastern Conference dominate the rankings. The tournament opens Tuesday and Wednesday with play-in games, and the first round opens Thursday and Friday, featuring 32 games at eight sites around the country. The Final Four is in San Antonio on April 5 and 7.

Auburn is a slight favorite over Duke to win the national championship, with Florida and Houston not far behind, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. UConn will make the tournament and try for a three-peat as national champ, something that hasn’t been done since the early 1970s, while Big East champion St. John’s is back as one of the top teams in the country under veteran coach Rick Pitino.

Bubble watch

Beyond the matchups, most of the drama will revolve around the Tar Heels and Longhorns, who are on the bubble and saw their chances of making the field of 68 shrink thanks to Colorado State’s run through the Mountain West Conference tournament.

The Rams’ win positions the Mountain West to grab at least three, and possibly up to five, bids if runner-up Boise State makes it.

North Carolina and Texas each won two games in their conference tournaments, and for about a day, they looked securely in. Now, though, they wait. What the NCAA selection committee decides with those teams will play a role in the history their respective conferences are making — or trying to avoid — this season.

If the Longhorns make it, the Southeastern Conference could place 14 teams in the bracket — which would account for about 1 in 5 of all the March Madness spots and set a record. The old one for a single conference was 11, set by the Big East in 2011.

If the Tar Heels get left out, the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference likely would only place three teams in the tournament. The last time the ACC put that few teams in was 2000, back when it was a nine-team league.

Texas and North Carolina will be paying attention to Sunday’s games between Memphis and UAB for the American Athletic Conference title and VCU vs. UAB in the Atlantic 10. If Memphis or VCU lose, another at-large spot could get gobbled up.

Who will be the overall No. 1 seed?

One of the ACC’s tourney teams will be Duke, which on Saturday reassured the NCAA that its best player, Cooper Flagg, would be available for the tournament after sitting out the last two games of the ACC Tournament with an injured ankle. Even without Flagg, Duke defeated Louisville 73-62 to win the title.

In picking the top overall seed, the selection committee will have to choose between Duke, with the uncertainty surrounding Flagg and its weaker strength of schedule, and Auburn, a semifinal loser in the SEC Tournament that, nevertheless, is helped by playing in the nation’s toughest conference.

Big 12 champion Houston also could squeeze into the very top spot. Florida looked like a good bet to get the final No. 1 seed, though a loss to Tennessee in the SEC title game Sunday could put the Vols there.

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AP March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness