NCAA committee chair explains why Texas A&M didn’t make the March Madness cut
Most believed Texas A&M played its way into the NCAA Tournament with a strong showing at the SEC Tournament.
The Aggies knocked off Florida, No. 4 Auburn and No. 15 Arkansas on three consecutive days to reach the title game. Then they fell to Tennessee 65-50 in the championship game on Sunday.
At 23-12 overall, ranked No. 42 in the NCAA’s NET and with two wins over ranked teams in the last week, A&M seemed destined for an at-large bid. But the Aggies were among the biggest snubs on Selection Sunday, failing to hear their named called despite winning seven of their last eight games.
“It doesn’t make sense,” A&M athletic director Ross Bjork wrote on Twitter. “It’s hard to figure out. This a flawed selection process if we do not reward teams who deserve an opportunity. Based on how we’ve responded before, I can assure you, no one will battle with stronger fight than @aggiembk & this staff @TeamCoachBuzz.”
Tom Burnett, the Southland Conference commissioner who is the NCAA men’s Division I basketball committee chair, explained the committee’s decision to leave A&M on the outside.
“Certainly Texas A&M was in our conversations throughout the week,” Burnett said on Sunday night. “Obviously we’ve been watching them throughout the year as well. And we watched with great interest the run they made in the SEC tournament. As you may have heard from the committee before, we’re looking at the entire body of work.
“That’s the entire season. That starts in November. That’s not just a week in March. Certainly an acknowledgment as well as this run has been by A&M here this week and over the last week or two of the season, it’s hard for the committee to ignore maybe a rough patch the team had back in January, maybe into the first half of February.
“The committee is looking for beating good teams on a regular basis and taking advantage of the opportunities that a team may have. As we looked at A&M this week, they have four Quadrant 1 wins and about (13) opportunities. That was in the mix, at the shakeout so to speak, but A&M was one of the first few teams out of the tournament.”
As Burnett said, A&M went 4-9 in Quad 1 games (home games vs. top 30; neutral site games against top 50; and road games vs. top 75). The Aggies also had an eight-game losing streak at one point during regular-season SEC play, including a home loss to lowly Missouri.
Still, that reasoning won’t sit well with A&M faithful who felt the program did enough to return to March Madness for the first time since 2018.
The Aggies have yet to reach March Madness under Buzz Williams, who is in his third season as head coach.
A&M will now focus on the NIT as it’s a 1-seed in college basketball’s secondary tournament. The Aggies certainly have an ability to make a run in the NIT, especially if it uses the NCAA snub as motivation.
As ESPN college basketball analyst Chris Spatola said about A&M last week, “They muck it up. If you haven’t seen them and played against them, they muck it up enough and are physical enough that they can put you on your heels.
“That was the thing that stood out to me. They just put teams on their heels with their physicality, their defense.”
A&M ranked among the biggest snubs for Texas-based schools. SMU and North Texas are also NIT-bound. SMU landed a 1-seed, while UNT will be a 2-seed.
As far as the Big 12 is concerned, Oklahoma ranked as its biggest snub. The Sooners are ranked No. 40 in the NET, ahead of other tournament-bound teams such as TCU and Iowa State.
Oklahoma will be a 1-seed in the NIT.
Burnett addressed the Sooners’ snub during a post-Selection Sunday conference call, saying: “Somewhat similarly [to A&M], there were a lot of opportunities for the Sooners in Quad 1. I believe 16 total and they won four of those. The committee also acknowledged that Oklahoma was 3-8 on the road this year.
“Again, everything factors in. Oklahoma is right behind A&M on that list of teams that are just out of the tournament.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 8:50 PM.
