Day seven of Championship Fortnight is in the books, and with it the first week of the Circle of March. Sunday’s slate was a bit lighter than Saturday, but we still eliminated 12 more teams to reach a total of 224 eligible schools remaining. Of course, at this time next week, we’ll be down to the magic number of 68, which means there’s still a lot of work to be done over the next 168 hours. There will only be 13 games on tap tonight, but they’re all elimination games with the MAC and MEAC getting under way, the Summit and WCC playing their semifinal rounds, and the CAA, MAAC and SoCon crowning champions. Keep in mind that to preserve the integrity of the regular season, we’re not yet eliminating schools from the CoM that still have games to play (i.e., Penn and Princeton).

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.09.14)

• Canisius
• Vermont
• Towson
• Davidson
• South Dakota
• Quinnipiac
• Hartford
• Georgia Southern
• Western Illinois

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our SEC Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Brian Joyce (@bjoyce_hoops) joins us to discuss Florida and the 13 dwarves heading into Atlanta this week. If you’re interested, the Big East Tournament podcast released this morning, while the Big 12 and AAC Tournament editions follow a bit later today. Join us!

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• 0:00-8:54 – Florida’s Perfect SEC Season
• 8:54-14:59 – Kentucky’s No-So-Perfect Season
• 14:59-18:41 – Prediction Reflections
• 18:41-23:22 – All Conference and SEC POY Discussion
• 23:22-26:41 – Non-Florida Picks for the SEC Tournament
• 26:41-29:09 – Which Bubble Team Needs a Win the Most?
• 29:09-30:25 – One Thing to Watch For

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our Big East Tournament edition, RTC columnist Brian Otskey (@botskey) joins us to discuss what appears to be a fairly wide-open field this week at Madison Square Garden. The SEC, Big 12 and AAC Tournament editions will release a bit later today, with the remainder coming later this week. Join us!

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-4:13 – Villanova’s Surprisingly Great Season
• 4:13-5:49 – First Big East Season a Success For Creighton
• 5:49-8:04 – Big East Superlatives
• 8:04-10:30 – Perception and Strength of the “New” Big East
• 10:30-11:40 – Who is the Favorite in the Big East Tournament?
• 11:40-16:07 – Darkhorse Teams That Can Win The Tournament
• 16:07-18:08 – Bubble Teams in Need of Wins
• 18:08-19:14 – Seeds for Villanova and Creighton
• 19:14-21:24 – Atmosphere at the New Big East Tourney

Saturday was a massive day of eliminations from the Circle of March, as the sixth full day of Championship Fortnight resulted in 46 more schools dropping out of contention for the national title. The bloodbath included only one automatic bid — hey, Eastern Kentucky — but there were 11 other mid-major tournaments occurring yesterday, as well as a number of other regular seasons ending. Sunday thus far has already brought us a few more automatic bids — Wichita State, Coastal Carolina and Mercer are all going dancing. A handful of schools were eliminated from the CoM by virtue of not qualifying for their conference tournaments starting next week, but keep in mind that to preserve the integrity of the regular season, we’re not yet eliminating schools that still have games to play (i.e., Penn and Princeton). This means that we are left with 232 “eligible” teams for the 2014 National Championship. One week to Selection Sunday!

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.08.14)

• Florida Gulf Coast
• Indiana State
• Northeastern
• Winthrop
• New Hampshire
• Wagner
• Rider
• Samford
• UNC-Asheville
• Hofstra
• St. Francis (PA)
• Missouri State
• Drexel
• Elon
• Siena
• UMBC
• VMI
• San Diego
• Army
• Southern Illinois
• Loyola Marymount
• Holy Cross
• James Madison
• Maine
• Chattanooga
• Saint Peter’s
• Brown
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Yale
• Dartmouth
• IUPUI
• Cleveland St.
• Belmont
• Binghamton
• The Citadel
• College of Charleston
• Niagara
• Santa Clara
• Pepperdine
• Lamar
• Central Arkansas
• Houston Baptist
• Eastern Washington
• Montana State
• Idaho State
• Southern Utah
• South Alabama
• Texas State
• UC Davis

Friday was a fun day of eliminations, with several good games involving a couple of buzzer-beaters, one step closer for #cheerfortheears, and the NCAA Tournament’s first automatic bid (Harvard). All told, 16 teams lost games and were removed from the Circle of March, with two more tournaments on tap to begin today (America East and The Summit). That leaves us with 282 “eligible” teams, but keep in mind that in order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status. This means that the five other already-eliminated Ivy League teams, each of which concludes their seasons tonight, will come off the CoM on Sunday (Penn and Princeton, the two other Ivies, will be removed after their Tuesday night finale).

 Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.07.14)

• Murray State
• Appalachian State
• High Point
• Evansville
• Furman
• Radford
• Illinois State
• UNC Greensboro
• Charleston Southern
• UNC Wilmington
• Oakland
• Loyola (Chicago)
• Morehead State
• Gardner-Webb
• Valparaiso
• Northern Iowa

With four days of Championship Fortnight now behind us, we have breached the magical 300-team mark. As of this morning, some 298 teams are unofficially still alive for the 2014 national championship, represented below on the Circle of March. Nine tournaments are in varying stages of progress at this point, with the CAA and SoCon tipping off today. Yesterday we removed only 11 teams from the CoM, but with nearly every league finishing up its regular season this weekend and a number of tourneys picking up fast and furiously, we’ll get below 200 in no time. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., as of today, six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

 Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.06.14)

• Monmouth
• East Tennessee State
• Tennessee Tech
• Drake
• Fairfield
• USC Upstate
• Portland
• Bradley
• Southeast Missouri State
• Marist
• Santa Clara

It’s all about coming full circle on the 2013-14 regular season in this week’s RTC Podblast, and to help us through some of the key questions as we enter the final weekend of play and start looking ahead to March Madness, the guys welcome Sporting News‘ columnist Mike DeCourcy. For those of you who have been listening to us all season, you might recall that DeCourcy was our first Rush the Take guest way back in the preseason. He may have aged five months since then but his takes are as relevant as ever. Full circle.

As usual, the rundown is below if you’d like to skip around to the most interesting parts. Also keep an eye out early next week as we’ll be releasing a bunch of podblasts previewing the upcoming conference tourneys as we head into the heart of Championship Fortnight.

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-3:05 – Down Goes Duke
• 3:05-5:18 – Struggling Syracuse
• 5:18-8:27 – Saint Louis Blue
• 8:27-25:20 – Rush the Take: Mike DeCourcy
• 25:20-35:35 – Final Weekend Preview

Alright, now we’re talking. With 14 more eliminations last night scattered among the Patriot, Big South, OVC and NEC, the Circle of March is starting to show some obvious gaps. Of our original 340 eligible teams, we’re now down to 309 remaining. The NEC was particularly exciting yesterday with two one-point games, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer at Mount St. Mary’s that resulted in the rare postseason RTC. Today the Atlantic Sun and OVC are back in action, with the Missouri Valley, the WCC and the MAAC each getting under way. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., as of today, six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.05.14)

• Liberty
• Presbyterian
• Campbell
• Bucknell
• Lehigh
• Fairleigh Dickinson
• Central Connecticut State
• Bryant
• St. Francis (NY)
• SIU-Edwardsville
• Lafayette
• Colgate
• Longwood
• Eastern Illinois

With a mere 10 days to go before Selection Sunday, it’s time to start checking all the mock brackets daily. Or hourly, if the mood strikes. With that in mind, the RTC Podcast crew decided to do a special mid-week Bracketology edition, inviting bracketologists Jerry Palm (CBSSports.com – @jppalmCBS), Patrick Stevens (Syracuse.com – @d1scourse) and Daniel Evans (RTC – @bracketexpert) on to discuss the ins and outs of selecting the field of 68. It’s an engaging and informative listen if you have the time to learn how these guys put together their brackets and some of their notable observations on the teams trying to earn invitations — join us! The entire rundown is below.

We’re going to be dropping podcasts/podblasts like crazy over the next five weeks of action, so make sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes so that you’ll get all of the episodes immediately downloaded to your listening device.

• 0:00-5:09 – Bubble Talk or Seeding Talk?
• 5:08-25:22 – Brackets with Jerry Palm
• 25:22-43:49 – Brackets with Patrick Stevens
• 43:49-1:00:39 – Brackets with Daniel Evans
• 1:00:39-1:04:11 – Recap

Day two of Championship Fortnight resulted in seven eliminations spread between the Atlantic Sun and Horizon League tournaments. It was a particularly rough night for Florida schools, with three of the state’s 14 D-I programs — Stetson, Jacksonville, and North Florida — finishing off their seasons in the A-Sun. Luckily for the Sunshine State, league favorite and America’s darling, Florida Gulf Coast, easily defeated Stetson to keep its hopes alive for another turn in the spotlight. We’re now down to 323 active schools on the Circle of March. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

There’s much more to come tonight, with the Patriot League picking back up and the Big South, OVC and NEC all tipping things off.

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.04.14)

• Detroit
• Illinois-Chicago
• Youngstown State
• Stetson
• North Florida
• Lipscomb
• Jacksonville