The rain has finally stopped for a few days, the temperature is starting to warm up, and the sun is out. It’s the perfect time of the year for some bubbles.

No, not those kinds of bubbles. The bubbles you hear talked about incessantly on any sports channel during the months of February and March.

Bubbles may have been for blowing back in the day, but this time of year, bubbles refer to college basketball teams that are on the cutline of making the NCAA Tournament.

When a team is referred to as “on the bubble,” it means they are right on the borderline of a tournament selection. What used to be a fun thing friends would discuss around the water cooler has now turned into a full-time profession for many self-proclaimed “bracketologists.”

You know the guys; the ones you see on your television making up mock NCAA Tournament brackets from January onward. The hype really gets cranked up in mid-February in the final few weeks of the regular season. The bracketologists include things like “last four teams in,” “first four teams out” and “next four teams out.”

All of this is, of course, silliness and a way to draw some attention to themselves and to the networks that employ them.

People treat these self-described bracket gurus as the gospel, and there is constant discussion of what team X, who is listed in the “first four out” category, needs to do in order to make the tournament. Or, what the team who is barely listed in the field needs to do to hang on to its spot.

In actuality, there is nothing team X can do to advance from the “first four out” category because it doesn’t exist.

The NCAA Tournament selection committee releases one bracket on Sunday evening. The committee doesn’t even reveal the first teams left out of the tournament, so we never know who the actual “first four out” were.

Sports networks, and ESPN in particular, have become masters of doing things like “bracketology” in order to generate discussion among fans and the ratings and website clicks that come with that.

The same thing happens during college football season. Is there a reason to release a college football playoff Top 25 poll each week? Of course not. The only poll that matters is the one at the end of the season. But, it gives ESPN a show that is guaranteed to be highly watched each week, and then drives fans to either their television channel or website to hear or read the debate and discussion over who was placed where.

With the college basketball regular season having concluded and the conference tournaments going on this week, bubble talk will continue to dominate discussion the next few days, with Alabama being one of the teams in the bubble discussion.

So, Alabama fans, don’t fret if you see the Crimson Tide drop into the “first four out” on ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s bracket. Just remember, there is only one bracket that matters, and that one comes out Sunday.

Until then, just enjoy the next few days of college basketball and let the chips fall where they may.

Jeff Edwards can be reached at jeff@athensnews-courier.com.