As par for the course, March Madness is without some of its best teams, most of them of the mid-major variety.
I’ll never forget where I was in 2006 during the March Madness Selection Show. As a die-hard Missouri State Bears fan, I was gearing up for a magical March run. With 20 wins, an RPI of 21 in the sixth best conference and a lone non-conference loss in Fayetteville to Arkansas. I assumed they were a lock for the NCAA tournament field. I was wrong.
Fast forward to the present day, I can relate to those of you who fans whose teams snubbed from the 2018 NCAA tournament field. March Madness is supposed to bring college basketball fans tidings of joy, but instead, it feels like getting coal in your stocking for Christmas. It feels like a sucker punch to the gut or somewhere worse.
Instead of seeing the likes of Middle Tennessee State, USC, and St Mary’s, among others, leaving us with the likes of Syracuse, Oklahoma and Alabama. Power 5 bias at it’s finest.
The last four who squeaked into the NCAA tournament
- UCLA
- St. Bonaventure
- Arizona State
- Syracuse
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee is telling us that Middle Tennessee wasn’t even strongly considered for one of the final March Madness slots. What a joke. Sadly, the Blue Raiders weren’t the only ones shunned, so let’s take a closer look at who has the biggest reason to be upset about missing the Big Dance.