The Mountain West appears to be a multi-bid league — Will the Rams receive one of them?

FORT COLLINS, CO. — March Madness is calling. Will the Rams answer? 

Colorado State men’s basketball (12-4, 9-3) currently sits in third place in the Mountain West. 

The Rams are 3-4 against Quad 1 competition and own splits againsts San Diego State (13-4, 7-3), Utah State (13-5, 10-2), and most recently, Boise State (14-2, 10-1). Assuming that CSU is able to play each of its final nine games, the Rams should be favored in every matchup down the stretch. Of course, the big question for the Ram Faithful still is, will a strong finish be enough to land the Green & Gold a spot in the NCAA Tournament this spring? 

With the Rams getting so few opportunities to prove themselves against non-conference opponents, the biggest knock on CSU’s at-large resume will definitely be strength of schedule. Playing devil’s advocate, it seems illogical to discredit a group for something that was completely out of their control. The Rams would have loved the chance to square off with three Pac-12 schools and one of the best teams in the A10 like they were originally supposed to. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had different plans, and CSU had to pivot. 

In a normal year, where they had complete control of their slate, one could easily use CSU’s lack of appealing OOC matchups against them — much like what ultimately kept the Rams out of the 2015 NCAA Tournament — even after winning 27 games. This year, though, is a completely unique situation and one that should be judged as such. 

Yes, CSU had an absurdly poor performance at St. Mary’s, and that’s unfortunate because a win there would have been massive for the metrics. But winning road games against the Aggies and Aztecs is a huge deal. Since Craig Smith took over at Utah State the Aggies have lost just four total games at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Plus, fans in the stands or not, Viejas Arena (SDSU) will always be one of the toughest venues in the conference. 

Whether the Rams end up finding a way to win the regular season league title or not, those road wins should hold a lot of weight in the eyes of the selection committee. And that’s not even getting into the fact that CSU recently ended Boise State’s 13-game winning streak — a group that has long been revered by the national basketball media. 

Looking at the current projections across the country, many are forecasting multiple Mountain West teams to qualify for the big dance. Some are even including all four of the top teams in the league. While it seems doubtful that Boise State, CSU, SDSU and USU would all end up qualifying for the event, two to three teams definitely feels like a stronger possibility than it has in most recent seasons. Really, it will come down to a few factors, though. 

First, the Broncos, who are currently leading the conference, have a brutal gauntlet to overcome. With trips to Nevada and SDSU, and home games against Utah State and UNLV still to go, Boise State is either going to separate themselves from the rest of the pack or end up dropping a few games late, leaving the door open for a team like CSU; assuming the Rams also survive a deceptively tough final stretch themselves, and USU drops one or more of its looming league games. 

While CSU will seemingly be favored in the remaining games, we all know it is hard to win one up in Laramie, WYO., let alone a pair. Any slip-ups against Nevada, UNM or Air Force would likely be back-breaking as well — at least from the perspective of wanting to win the regular season title. So, they really can’t afford to overlook anyone. Even Northern Colorado could be a decent game if the Bears are hitting shots. 

The other big factor for the Mountain West getting more than two teams into March Madness, though, will be respect, which is obviously tricky due to the subjectivity of it all. Anyone that has regularly watched MW hoops this year knows that the league has four of the top 68 teams in the country. Going by NET ranking, the league actually has four of the top 55 teams in the country but I digress.

The point is that everyone knows mid-majors tend to get overlooked for middle-of-the-pack teams in power conferences. And in a year where many of the traditional blue bloods are on the fringe at best, there is definitely going to be a desire to get bigger schools in the tournament for TV ratings.

If it comes down to schools like CSU or Utah State vs. someone from the Big Ten or ACC for one of the final bids, it would be tough to feel confident that the committee would do right by the “little guys” in the Rocky Mountains.

That said, the only thing a smaller program like CSU can do is take care of business by controlling what is controllable. If the Rams do everything in their power to prove themselves and end up getting disrespected by the process, at least fans will feel solace in knowing that this team went down swinging. Really, as a sports fan, that’s all you can ask for. 

After splitting with Boise State last week, CSU will travel to Wyoming for a two-part Border War starting on Thursday night. The Cowboys have been up and down all season but they will surely be itching to play spoilers against their rivals. The path to the NCAA Tournament is visible for CSU at this point. Time to see if this young group can step up and find a way to reach their goal.