There was a common thread between some of the biggest snubs in this year’s NCAA Tournament, one that seems to make a lot of sense.
Louisville, USC and Oklahoma State were among the biggest snubs from the dance. And guess what? All three are part of the federal investigation into college basketball corruption.
Of those three snubs, only one — USC — was part of the first four out. The other schools in the first four out group included Baylor, Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s.
Arizona State made it over USC even though USC finished second in the conference in Pac-12 play and made the Pac-12 championship game during the tournament. USC (23-11, 12-6) had a better overall and conference record than ASU (20-11, 8-10). USC was one of the biggest snubs in history based on RPI.
Oklahoma State went 19-14 and 8-10 in the tough Big 12. They beat Kansas twice, including on the road, West Virginia on the road, Oklahoma twice, and Texas Tech. They had a very good case for being in the dance but got left out.
Louisville went 20-13 and 9-9 in the ACC. They beat Virginia Tech and Florida State twice.
The schools implicated in the FBI investigation included Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Miami, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, and Southern California.
Arizona made it as an automatic bid for winning the Pac-12. Auburn and Miami made it as at-large teams. The other schools — Louisville, Oklahoma State, South Carolina and USC — did not make it as at-large teams. At 17-16, South Carolina never had a shot to make it. Auburn finished first in the SEC during conference play, so there was no way to leave them out. Miami went 11-7 in the ACC and was a top-25 team, so they couldn’t be left out either. But the other three had very good cases for being included in the field and were left out.
It seems that when in doubt, the NCAA Tournament selection committee tried to avoid those schools.
