NCAA Selection Sunday will be a tense one for Marquette

NEW YORK - It will not be a comfortable Sunday evening in front of the television for Marquette when the team gathers to watch the NCAA Tournament field be announced.

The Golden Eagles' résume is pretty shaky. But at least MU (19-13) won't have to wait on pins and needles for long, as the selection show has been revamped this season to reveal all 68 teams within the first 10 minutes, with the bracket matchups to follow.

"I believe we're an NCAA Tournament team. But that's not something I get to decide on," MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said after his team's 94-70 loss to Villanova on Thursday in the Big East quarterfinals.

Coverage on the TBS cable network begins at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Trying to forecast the Golden Eagles' chances at making the field is an exercise in futility.

For every "bracketologist" who has MU in the tournament,  another has the Golden Eagles out.

The Bracket Matrix website, which averages all of projections from well-known bracketologists, has MU as the first team left out of the field after Thursday's games.

RELATED: Marquette's NCAA team sheet

RELATED:USA Today's "bracketology"

The only sure thing is that MU is teetering on the edge.

MU didn't get much help on Friday, with Alabama likely locking down a bid by beating Auburn and San Diego State beating Nevada in the Mountain West tournament to steal a bid for that conference.

The committee doesn't look at a team's conference record, but playing in the Big East has afforded the Golden Eagles plenty of opportunities to pick up high-quality wins.

"I think the Big East is the best conference in the country," Wojciechowski said. "We had 70% of our teams in the tournament last year. And this year the league's a lot better. I mean, that's saying something."

One can construct an argument that MU should be in the tournament because it swept Seton Hall and won road games against Providence and Creighton.

All those victories are classified under "Quadrant 1" in the new way that the committee looks at teams.

An argument for excluding MU from the field is just as easy to put together.

After all, there was a brutal loss on the road to DePaul and a bad, non-conference defeat to Georgia at home.

Playing in the Big East also provides MU with a strong strength of schedule, which the committee looks at on every team sheet. 

"We played Xavier twice and Villanova three times," Wojciechowski said. "Both those teams have a great chance to win a national championship.

"And the quote-unquote middle of the pack, I put it up against any other conference in the country. And the fact that we don't get to have unbalanced schedules and you have to play everybody in a home and away makes it –  I think it's the best conference in the country. And I hope other people would view it that way as well."

The only opinion that matters about MU's body of work is the one formed by the 10-member committee. 

Those people will decide if MU will be sent to Dayton for a "First Four" game or if it merits being one of the other teams.

Or they can decide MU isn't worthy of being included this season and leave the Golden Eagles to ponder accepting a NIT bid.

It will be a suspenseful television show indeed.