Selection Sunday isn't the final word on NCAA chances for four alternate teams

On any other Selection Sunday, we'd make a big fuss about the programs snubbed from the 68-team field, the ones that had to go through the read-and-weep process of watching the bracket revealed on their TV screens.

For the first time in the selection show's history, it's not over for them, though.

Picture Jim Carrey's "Dumb & Dumber" movie line: "So you're saying there's a chance?"

Yes, that's exactly what the NCAA tournament selection committee is saying. For the top four teams left out of the field, there's still a slim chance this year to make it. Only this year during the pandemic.

The NCAA picked Louisville, Colorado State, St. Louis, and Mississippi as potential replacements if any teams in the original field cannot play because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

There will be no reseeding or change in the bracket, so there's a chance one of the alternates can fill slots as needed until a Tuesday night deadline. A team that wasn't supposed to go dancing could potentially get a top seed. How crazy does that sound?

Even crazier would be teams advancing because of no-contests when COVID strikes down their opponent. It already happened in the ACC tournament to Duke and Virginia, paving the way for Georgia Tech to win the conference tournament and play a bid-stealer role.

The Cavaliers, the ACC tournament's No. 1 seed, had to cancel their semifinal game Friday against the Yellow Jackets because of a positive COVID-19 test, which came 24 hours after a last-second victory.

Fortunately, Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who cut down the nets in Minneapolis for the last NCAA title game contested in 2019, said his team will be in quarantine until Thursday and travel to Indiana on Friday before playing the next day.

All members of every team's traveling party have to test negative for the coronavirus for seven consecutive days before traveling to Indiana, which hosts the entire March Madness event this year. Reducing the size of your traveling party reduces risks, which was how the Gophers avoided COVID pauses all season.

Only five players need to be healthy to play in this tournament, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said.

"It was fairest for a team that had a great season, earned their way to play in this tournament, that even if they were to be compromised in some way, if they have those five players, they still should have the opportunity to compete rather than be replaced," Gavitt told reporters.

Having a college basketball team advance all the way to the Final Four with only five or six healthy players would be just another chapter in an unprecedented season.

What if there's a virus outbreak with multiple teams knocked out of the bubble? The first replacement team getting into the NCAA tournament would be Louisville. Next up is Colorado State, led by Minneapolis native and coach Niko Medved and former Breck star David Roddy.

Louisville once looked in good shape to stay off the bubble with a nonconference victory over Kentucky and the season sweep over Duke. But those blue bloods failed to be NCAA tournament-worthy.

What hurt alternates Louisville and St. Louis, though, were lengthy COVID pauses this season. The Cardinals had two, including for 19 days in February. The Billikens played only 10 conference games because of their pause, which occurred not long after the Gophers defeated them in December. St. Louis reportedly had 33 days between games and 11 players test positive during the season.

Once the selections were made, NCAA tournament selection committee chairman Mitch Barnhart said they took serious consideration for pauses, but they ultimately judged teams on the games they could play. Let a potentially unusual year of dancing begin.

Marcus Fuller cover college basketball and the University of Minnesota for the Star Tribune. E-mail: marcus.fuller@startribune.com. Twitter: @Marcus_R_Fuller