Ten SEC men’s teams made the 68-team NCAA Tournament field Sunday, the most of any conference.
It’s the two that were left out — Oklahoma and Auburn — that will draw the most controversy. The Sooners, Tigers, San Diego State and Indiana were listed by the selection committee as the first four teams out of this year’s tournament.
It was hardly a surprise. Most bracketologists had Oklahoma, Auburn and San Diego State listed as the first three teams out. Indiana was typically listed in the next four out.
Those making it in ahead of those four schools included Texas — another SEC school — N.C. State, SMU and Miami (Ohio), which lost its distinction as the nation’s only unbeaten team with a loss to UMass in the Mid-American Conference Tournament earlier this week.
The decisions came despite public lobbying from former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl to help the 17-win Tigers, now coached by his son Steven. Sixteen losses and a sub-.500 record in conference play proved Auburn’s undoing.
The younger Pearl made his feelings known after Auburn’s SEC Tournament loss Thursday to Tennessee.
“It’s my job to fight for my team,” Pearl said after proclaiming his team deserved to be in the field. “It’s my job to be my team’s advocate. It’s my job to speak about all the things that this group’s done.”
Oklahoma (19-15) also may have been left out after Miami’s loss or perhaps the early Atlantic 10 Tournament loss by No. 23 Saint Louis. The Billikens earned the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region, giving what was thought to be a one-bid conference two bids — just like Akron and Miami (31-1) in the MAC.
San Diego State (22-11), the Mountain West regular-season runner-up, also found itself on the wrong side of the bubble after losing to regular-season conference champ Utah State in Saturday’s tournament final. Without the 2023 national runner-up in the field, the Mountain West wound up a one-bid conference.
And for the second straight year, Hoosiers coach Darian DeVries and his son, Tucker, barely missed the field. They were at West Virginia last March when the 19-13 Mountaineers were listed as the first team out of the field — the third stop in three years for the father-son tandem.
