3. Biggest March Madness Snubs – Texas A&M Aggies
Perhaps the biggest thrill ride from Championship Week came out of Tampa where Texas A&M made a stunning late push for the field. After toppling fellow bubbler Florida in overtime on Thursday, the Aggies upset top-seeded Auburn and blew out No. 4 seed Arkansas to earn a date in the final against Tennessee on Sunday afternoon.
The Volunteers ended up blowing out Texas A&M but many bracketologists felt that the Aggies’ work in Tampa was enough to push them into the field. That wasn’t the case and there are a few reasons why the committee didn’t think Buzz Williams’ team did enough to earn an at-large bid.
A 4-9 record in Quadrant 1 game certainly hurt the Aggies, especially since two of those wins only came this week. An eight-game losing streak in the middle of the season is also tough to overlook with two of those defeats coming at home against South Carolina (not great) and Missouri (yikes).
This selection committee wasn’t going to be impressed by a conference tournament surge as evidenced by the fact that Virginia Tech, which won a weaker conference with better metrics than Texas A&M, only got an 11-seed for winning the ACC Tournament. The Hokies likely would have been left out if they didn’t win on Saturday so we can’t be shocked that the Aggies were left behind.