There are precisely three spots between North Carolina being in the NCAA Tournament and being bound for the NIT and they partly have their conference affiliation to blame for that. The difference between Arkansas and North Carolina might come down to the Razorbacks being in the SEC and UNC being in the much weaker ACC.
In years past, that might not have meant much. But this season in particular, SEC bias couldn’t be stronger. With Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update, it’s clear the SEC will have a large presence in the NCAA Tournament.
It might come at the expense of typical blue bloods. For what it's worth, if any year where SEC bias is reasonable, this is the year. And truthfully, Arkansas probably has a better resume than UNC anyway, because the SEC really is that good.
UNC will have a tough journey to the Big Dance thanks to a weak ACC
The SEC currently has 12 teams seeded in Lunardi’s latest Bracketology. On top of that, Oklahoma and Texas are among the first four out of the tournament. If either team puts together a respectable run in the conference tournament, it could be key to getting in.
The difference is in the SEC, the bubble teams have to string together a couple wins and it will probably be enough to convince the committee to give them the nod. For teams like North Carolina, they’ll more than likely have to beat one of Duke or Clemson to bolster their resume.
The strongest conference deserves the most representation so having a lot of SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament doesn’t seem irrational. In a year when North Carolina hasn’t been as strong as they usually are, they’re toughest battle is one that seems impossible to be.
A conference tournament run may not be enough for the Tar Heels to join the NCAA Tournament, that’s just how things have gone this year. That said, even if they do go on a conference tournament run, they’ll still have to climb the mountain to beat out an SEC team.
That just doesn’t seem realistic this year with how many good and ranked SEC teams there are. Arkansas has that advantage for playing an SEC schedule. It will be the difference in why the Razorbacks can sneak in and why the Tar Heels will be shunned out.