The NCAA Tournament field is set at 68 (despite the wishes of power conference commissioners like Greg Sankey of the SEC) and the last few spots in the dance always lead to controversial decisions. Anyone following the bubble over the course of the season knows that this year's bubble was weaker than last season's, which was notably impacted by three bid thieves late in the process, and only saw one notable bid thief emerge when Colorado State claimed the Mountain West's automatic bid on Saturday night.
Champ Week elevated the profile of a lot of bubble teams, who took advantage of their conference tournaments to make deep runs (see Texas, North Carolina, Boise State) while others squandered opportunities to pick up wins that would eliminate any doubt about their candidacy (see Xavier, Indiana, Ohio State). Who has the biggest gripes with the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee after Selection Sunday?
Six Biggest Snubs Of The 2025 NCAA Tournament
West Virginia
Perhaps the biggest stunner of the night was seeing West Virginia left out of the field. While Colorado State's theft of the Mountain West's automatic bid apparently doomed the Mountaineers, the first team out, the fact that they were bypassed for teams like North Carolina and Xavier, with their combined 2-23 record against Quad 1 opponents, is a travesty.
There was a lot to like about West Virginia's resume, headlined by six Quad 1 wins (including over Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State), but suspect losses to Arizona State, Kansas State and Colorado (in their first Big 12 Tournament game) appear to have sunk the Mountaineers. Few teams received more of a raw deal than West Virginia, which certainly passed the eye test as a tournament team, committee chair Bubba Cunningham indicated that the fact that Tucker DeVries, who was a big part of their strong non-conference performance, is out for the year changed how the committee viewed their candidacy.
Boise State
It was all coming together nicely for the Broncos, who took care of both San Diego State and New Mexico to reach the Mountain West final, but then Colorado State ran them off the floor in the first half. Boise State was never able to recover, losing by 13, and that defeat likely flipped their spot in the field over to the Rams as the league's bid thief.
There was a lot to like with Boise State's resume, including Quad 1 wins over Clemson and Saint Mary's in non-conference play to go along with one over New Mexico at home, but losses to Boston College and Washington State came back to bite them. Winning against the Aztecs in the conference tournament was also helpful but San Diego State still swept the Broncos in the regular season and owned a far better non-conference win (over Houston on a neutral floor) than Boise State had to offer.
Indiana
It is remarkable that the Hoosiers, who announced in February that head coach Mike Woodson was departing after the season, were on the bubble to begin with. Snapping a five-game skid with a road win over Michigan State served as a launching pad for Indiana's surge, which also included a home win over Purdue.
A pair of losses to Oregon ended Indiana's season in the Big Ten Tournament's second round, pushing the Hoosiers' Quad 1 record to 4-13 (encompassing all of their losses). The other two Quad 1 wins came over fellow bubbler Ohio State, however, and predictive metrics were not as high on Indiana (which finished 54th in the NET) compared to other at-large candidates.
Ohio State
If we projected the field in mid-February, Ohio State would have been safely in the field. A win over Washington had pushed the Buckeyes to 15-10 overall with wins over Texas, Kentucky (at Madison Square Garden) and at Purdue, making at-large selection feel like a lock without a complete collapse.
The collapse did come, however, as Ohio State dropped five of its last seven games, including brutal losses to Northwestern (at home by 21) and Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Despite solid predictive metrics and a good strength of schedule, a 17-15 overall record was simply too mediocre for inclusion in the field.
UC Irvine
Perhaps an expanded field would have been helpful for UC Irvine, which had a shot to turn the Big West into a two-bid league for the first time since 2005 if they had beaten UC San Diego in the championship game. The Tritons pulled away from the Anteaters late, however, which was the finishing blow since Irvine's resume was inferior to both UC San Diego's and the rest of the at-large pool.
Playing in the Big West torpedoed strength of schedule figures for the Anteaters, who had 27 of their games fall outside the top two quadrants. Having a NET of 62 with a 4-3 record in the top two quadrants would probably be enough to make a 76-team field, but its unfortunate that a 28-win team that passed the eye test as a tournament entrant was auto-bid or bust entering Champ Week.