Joe Lunardi reveals where Texas, North Carolina resumes stand entering Selection Sunday

North Carolina and Texas enter Selection Sunday on the outside looking in on the NCAA Tournament bubble, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. With Colorado State beating Boise State to win the Mountain West Conference tournament, the bubble has been shaken up even further.

The Broncos’ loss pushes them back to Lunardi’s first team out of the field, with North Carolina and Texas following in that order. Meanwhile, Indiana has since slid into the last team in the tournament on Lunardi’s board.

“[Boise State] will probably drop out of the field. The other will be the automatic bid recipient. So we’re going to see the bubble actually move up instead of down, for a change,” Lunardi said on Saturday night during an appearance on ESPN2. “So that brings those in the first four out group, back into play. But we’ve also seen what could happen if a Memphis were to lose, or if a VCU were to lose, both were challenged today, Memphis especially. So we could still have other bid thieves. I would not want to be Carolina or Texas overnight.”

Memphis is the projected AAC auto-bid as the top seed in the conference tournament. However, if they’re upset before winning the tournament — someone will be pushed out of the field for them as they’re currently an AP ranked team. The same goes for VCU, who is is 27-6 as the A-10 regular season champion.

The Tigers would go on to escape an upset scare 78-77 against Tulane in the AAC semifinal, while VCU avoided a loss against Loyola Chicago 66-52 on Saturday. Both will play in their respective conference championships on Sunday — two games both North Carolina and Texas will likely keep an eye on.

What is unfortunate for both the Tar Heels and Longhorns, however, is that they no longer control their own fate. Both teams lost in their conference’s respective quarterfinal matchup, and will have to wait and see where they land come Selection Sunday.

North Carolina was eliminated by eventual ACC Tournament champion Duke in the semifinals, while the Longhorns came up short against Tennessee in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. However, the Volunteers are in the conference tournament championship game on Sunday, meaning both teams could have been knocked out by their respective conference tournament champion if Tennessee beats Florida.

Regardless, the Tar Heels and Longhorns will find out whether they are on the outside looking in when the final bracket is released on Sunday, or if they’ll be dancing with 67 other teams in March Madness. Fans can watch the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket be revealed on Sunday with coverage beginning at 6 p.m. ET live on ESPN.