College Basketball NCAA Tournament Automatic Bid Tracker: Murray State Becomes First to Clinch Spot in Big Dance

Conference tournaments are where Cinderella stories begin.

Lives will be changed forever depending on whether or not their team can secure an automatic bid and go dancing into the NCAA Tournament.

The 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament includes 32 teams that will receive auto-bids into March Madness after winning their respective conference tournaments.

As we lead into Selection Sunday, we will continue to update this story to show which teams have secured their spot in the Big Dance.

Big South

Conference Winner: Longwood

Longwood secured its bid to the 2022 NCAA Tournament with a decisive 79-58 victory over Winthrop in the Big South Championship. The Lancers were close to perfect through conference portion of their season with a 15-1 record. They rank sixth in the nation in 3-point percentage (38.6%), which can be an important part of the recipe of pulling off an upset in the Big Dance.

Ohio Valley

Conference Winner: Murray State

Murray State was the first school to secure a bid to the NCAA Tournament and rightfully so. The Racers have been one of the best mid-major teams of the season, putting together a 30-2 record. They'll be the only team in the tournament with two or fewer losses. This is also a program that would have likely received an automatic bid had it not won its conference tournament.