Turns out the top four teams left out of March Madness won't have their bubbles burst quite yet. Under a contingency plan released Thursday by the Division I basketball committees, those four at-large teams that don't make the original field in the men's and women's NCAA tournaments will be placed in order and serve as the replacement teams should any conference with multiple bids have a school that is unable to participate due to COVID-19 issues.
If the tournament begins without any withdrawals, the four would still be eligible to compete in the NIT. The contingency plan only applies to the short period between the announcement of the brackets — March 14 for men and March 15 for women — and the start of games later that week.