bid thief

In U.S. college basketball, especially NCAA Division I, a team that (1) is a member of a conference with at least one team that is virtually certain to receive a bid to the men's or women's championship tournament, as applicable, regardless of performance in the conference tournament; (2) is not viewed as a viable candidate for an at-large tournament bid; but (3) nevertheless wins its conference tournament, forcing the more powerful conference member(s) into the at-large pool and thus "stealing" a bid from a team (not necessarily in that conference) that otherwise would be a credible candidate for an at-large bid