Miami (OH) should’ve been rewarded, now they must fight their way in

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Miami (OH) should’ve been rewarded, now they must fight their way in originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Miami (OH) has done something no MAC school ever has in their over 80-year existence. Make no mistake about it, making history should add to a team’s tournament resume. The committee’s seeding decision for the Redhawks, suggests the regular season doesn't matter. 

There has always been a growing perspective that big programs in big conferences are valued above what many still refer to as a “mid-major”. If Duke or Arizona or even a Georgetown went undefeated for their regular season, that team with that achievement would and should be seeded higher than a Miami (OH).

Even if the big program bias is universally accepted, none of those teams went undefeated. Every single team, regardless of conference, in the current AP Top 25 had somewhere between two and seven losses. The Redhawks played and beat every team in front of them.

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Due to the conference bias, no one was expected a top 3 seed in any region for the Redhawks. That is not the question. The question is in what world, considering what they accomplished, do they deserve a play-in seed? The answer is they realistically don’t.

You can only worry about the teams in front of you

The undefeated regular season should have guaranteed Miami (OH) would not and should not have to play for their tournament lives before the tournament gets started in earnest. A five through ten seed should have been the expectation. Even a twelve seed would have ensured they weren’t a play-in team.

One of the largest concerns surrounding playoff expansion (for any sport) is the diminishing or undervaluing of the regular season. The Selection Committee is creating a dangerous precedent for regular season success by banishing the Redhawks to the status of “we need you to prove it”.

Detractors will point to their first-round exit from the MAC tournament, but for this conversation, that could not matter any less. Had Miami (OH) won the MAC Tournament; this conversation would be unnecessary. Had they gone undefeated and won the Conference, they would have every reason to expect to be a four through seven seed.

The regular season should have been rewarded on its own merits, above and beyond anything that happened in the MAC tournament. There is context. Many will point to their strength of schedule and the opponents on their schedule. However, Miami (OH) tried to schedule bigger programs and were denied.

As the saying goes, you can only worry about the teams in front of you. Miami (OH) made significant efforts to play a tougher schedule and were unable to land those games. Putting them right back in the position of needing to beat everyone in front of them. Which they did.

Diminishing the regular season has consequences

In college athletics circles, primarily basketball or football, the concept of moving to a Power 4 dominate or P4 only situation has been debated. While it is more of a football idea at this point, decisions like forcing Miami (OH) to earn their way in after an undefeated season, is a direct way to fast track that debate.

The sad realization is that this concept should not belong in the NCAA Tournament. Its popularity has grown over the last almost century due to one irrefutable factor. Upsets. Names like Fairleigh Dickinson, Maryland Baltimore County, Saint Peters, Norfolk State, VCU, Valparaiso, Oral Roberts, Florida Gulf Coast University, Davidson, George Mason and the list goes on.

In none of those cases, were the teams listed above ‘expected’ to win the games they did. Yet there they were, creating NCAA Tournament history. Not to mention furthering the lore of NCAA Tournament upsets. Why should Miami (OH) be viewed as if small school upsets aren't a thing? 

Making history, even mid-major history, should be something rewarded within the current dynamic. That should be true in an all-time sense. It certainly should be true in a college basketball world where NIL budgets are a massive factor.

The MAC ranks as the second lowest total revenue of any FBS conference. There is also a 70% gap in revenue sharing from Power 4 conferences like the Big Ten vs the MAC. The proverbial ‘playing field’ was already not even.

Yet, the committee seemingly punished the Redhawks for not winning their conference tournament and conveniently forgetting that no school from that conference has ever done what Miami (OH) just did.

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