According to NCAA Tournament committee chair Keith Gill, Miami (Ohio) was not on the edge of being excluded from the 2026 NCAA Tournament field.
Gill, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner, asserted that the RedHawks received the 34th of 37 at-large invites into the 68-team field.
But when it came time for the committee to create the matchups, the RedHawks might as well have been the last team in. Miami received a No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region, but the squad that went 31-0 during the regular season must face fellow No. 11 Midwest seed SMU in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, just to advance to the final 64.
“Miami came into the field before NC State, Texas and SMU,” Gill said on ESPN Sunday night. “So they came in before those schools. And when we put them on the seed line and we scrubbed them against those schools, they ended up falling, so they ended up being kind of the last at-large on our seed list — but they weren’t the last at-large selected into the field.”
Why did the committee treat Miami (31-1) like No. 34 in the selection process, but No. 37 in the seeding process? Gill declared that the committee followed its principles.
“One of the things that’s really important is, we look at the resume metrics and what you’ve accomplished as a way to kind of figure out who gets into the field,” Gill said. “And when you look at Miami’s resume metrics first, they have a historic 28-0 regular season against Division I competition. They have a WAB (Wins Above Bubble) that is 37th (in the nation). They have a Strength of Record (ranking) that’s 28. So they have some really strong kind of resume metrics that show their accomplishments.
“And then they’re obviously a quality team in terms of their offensive kind of work in terms of being second in scoring offense in the nation and also being first in field goal percentage. And so when we look at those things and we put those together, we felt like Miami was certainly one of the 37 best at-large teams.
“I think what happens when we do our scrubbing process, we’re looking a little bit more at the predictive metrics. Their predictive metrics aren’t quite as good — and that’s why they ended up falling against some of those teams on the seed line.”
The Mid-American Conference regular-season champions won 31 consecutive games to start the season before an upset loss in the conference tournament quarterfinals on Thursday. Akron became the three-time defending champions by claiming the MAC title, which cast doubt on whether the NCAA Tournament selection committee would grant the MAC two bids for the first time since 1999.
In the end, VCU wound up being the team that should have felt the most pressure on Sunday. Though the Rams appeared to be a legitimate at-large candidate with a WAB ranking of 40 and a Strength of Record that stood 39th in the nation, they apparently would have fallen short if they had not defeated Dayton in Sunday’s A-10 final.
“With regards to VCU,” Gill told CBS during the Selection Sunday show, “(the Rams) would not have been in the field if they had not won the Atlantic 10 automatic qualifier.”
The RedHawks made the field with a NET rating of 64 over Oklahoma (38) and Auburn (44). Auburn had wins over Florida, St. John’s and Arkansas — all teams that received a five seed or better — but wasn’t one of the 10 SEC teams awarded a bid.
Gill elaborated about the process with ESPN without delving into many specifics.
“I think a lot of times when it comes down to that last team in the field — and, so, this year that was SMU — and so that conversation between them and some of those teams that are outside the tournament is really challenging,” Gill said. “All those teams had good years and some really good things on their resumes. They also had some things that were probably not as good, so when you’re trying to compare those and get to that last team in the tournament, it is tense and you’re just trying to make sure you’re making the best decision.”
–Field Level Media
