The Big East (apparently) doesn’t have a regular season championship. They call their postseason tourney the Big East Conference Championship. The “bracketologists” over ESPN project that the conference will get eight bids — UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Marquette, Villanova, Syracuse, West Virginia and Providence, with the Friars being one of the last teams in. That leaves Cincinnati and Notre Dame on the outside looking in.

Cincy plays at South Florida and at home against Seton Hall this week, so with two wins, they would finish the regular season at 20-11 and 10-8 in conference. If that happens, it would be tough for the selection committee to leave them out. However, they are just 1-6 against Top 25 teams and the one win was against an overrated Georgetown team. Basically, they’ve been winning games that they should win, but aren’t beating any “superior” opponents. They don’t have a single marquee win on the season, so unless they win out and make some noise in the Big East tourney, they may not get a bid.

Notre Dame is in an even tougher position. The Irish are 7-9 and 16-12 on the season. They did beat Texas early in the season and spanked Louisville by 33 in February, so a win tonight against Villanova and another win on Friday at St. John’s might put the Irish back in the hunt. They’d be 9-9 in conference, so if they were to win a few games in the conference tourney (including a win against UConn, Pitt or Louisville), they would be back in the conversation.

Providence needs to be careful not to close out the season with back to back losses. They visit a good Villanova team on Thursday and will probably enter the conference tourney at 10-8 in the conference (18-12 overall). An early exit in the tourney might spell doom for the Friars.