Predicting Louisville's 2015 NCAA Tournament seed and first round opponent

Barring the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee doing something completely shocking (which is never outside the realm of possibility), it appears as though Louisville is going to see itself pop up as a 4, 5 or 6 seed Sunday evening, with a 5 or 4 (in that order) seeming to be the most likely.

This leaves the Cards squarely in the position of potentially facing a bubble team/First Four winner in their round of 64 game, which means the pool of teams U of L might see its name appear next to during the Selection Show is even larger than in most years. An upset-filled Championship Week has made it increasingly likely that the two at-large First Four games will be for No. 11 seeds, and not the No. 12 or No. 13 spot we've seen more times than not.

All things considered, here is the pool of 24 teams that almost certainly includes the team Louisville will face in the round of 64:

Automatic Qualifiers

Wofford (Southern)
New Mexico State (WAC)
Wyoming (Mountain West)
Harvard (Ivy League)
Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
Buffalo (Mid-American)
Eastern Washington (Big Sky)
UC Irvine (Big West)

At-Large Candidates

BYU (West Coast)
Ole Miss (SEC)
Temple (AAC)
Texas (Big 12)
Boise State (Mountain West)
LSU (Ole Miss)
Colorado State (Mountain West)
Georgia (SEC)
Davidson (Atlantic 10)
Indiana (Big 10)
UCLA (Pac-12)
Murray State (Ohio Valley)
Oklahoma State (Big 12)
Purdue (Big 10)

Could earn a bid with win today

Connecticut (AAC)
Georgia State (Sun Belt) (Their opponent, Georgia Southern, would not be a potential match for the Cards)

If we're highlighting teams we'd especially like not to see, I'll start the list with BYU, Stephen F. Austin, Purdue, Texas and Georgia State. UConn, Harvard and Wofford get honorable mention nods, but this is all just my opinion.

As for my totally baseless prediction, I'm saying the committee keeps us out of the Midwest and sends us East (perhaps the home of No. 1 seed Villanova), where the fifth-seeded Cardinals are paired up against Bobby Hurley's Buffalo Bulls.

The hours are ticking down, let's get all the speculating out of our systems now.