How can Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Ole Miss still do NCAA tournaments

The selection has unveiled the final 68-team field for the 2021 NCAA tournament on Sunday. And, as is the tradition, there were many teams who were not only disappointed in seed planting, but also completely out of the bracket.

Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Ole Miss – Enter the first four teams out of March Madness.

And yet, a ray of hope still exists for these teams to participate in the NCAA tournament: Under the organization’s new rules, any of those four teams can replace a tournament-bound team if the latter Can not play due to COVID-19 issues. But this is not so easy.

MORE: NCAA Tournament Protocol for Changing Teams

Here’s everything you need to know about how Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Ole Miss can make March Madness despite being selected for the 2021 NCAA Tournament:

NCAA Tournament COVID-19 Protocol

On February 25, the NCAA issued several protocols to replace teams that could not play in March Madness due to COVID-19 issues. In particular, the first four teams can still receive if a team drops out in a multi-bid league before 6 pm ET on Tuesday. Single-bid conferences will select replacement teams that opt-out, as does the NCAA that wants as many conferences as possible (Ivy League will not participate).

If a team drops out after that deadline, no replacement team will be selected; The tournament game will have a no-contest and that team rule is Will be able to play in advance. But if a team gets out before that, the NCAA will select Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Ole Miss in the following order:

1. Louisville
2. Colorado state
3. Saint Louis
4. Ole miss

That means the Cardinals – one of the NCAA tournament’s most notable snubs – must have a team ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to make March Madeline the first priority.

The teams that are likely to be replaced are Kansas and Virginia, both ruling out their respective conference tournaments with the COVID-19 positive. Both teams expressed confidence that they would be able to participate in the March Madness, and none of the teams contacted the NCAA before the deadline of 11 a.m. ET on Saturday night to inform the organization that they would play. Will not meet its criteria.

Regardless, Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis and Ole Miss will await word from the NCAA whether they have been selected to make the tournament. In that time, teams asked that at least five players produce a negative COVID-19 test for seven consecutive days. Otherwise, they will be disqualified.

If none of the first four teams go to the NCAA tournament, they will be considered 1-seed in the 2021 NIT tournament. However, it is worth noting that Louisville is already Notified NIT that it will not participate – This means that the basketball future of 2020-21 depends entirely on whether it can enter the NCAA tournament.