No Fortune For Below .500: Did 5 Schools With Losing Marks Deserve Bids?

Alabama's obscene total of 15 defeats entering NCAA competition notwithstanding, when will the Division I Committee and "impartial" media promoting leagues with which they have cozy business dealings realize a losing conference record probably should deny any team receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament? In 30 of the last 36 years, the selection committee awarded at least one at-large berth to a squad with a sub-.500 mark in a top-caliber league. Bama is among an all-time high of five this year as the committee, if history holds form, will be shown to have pretty much simply wasted everyone's time. Anyone with functioning brain knows combination of Middle Tennessee State, Saint Mary's, Vermont and Western Kentucky would have been a more entertaining match-up this year than dreary Arizona State/Syracuse affair.

The Big 12 Conference was the beneficiary for the fifth and sixth time in the last five years when Oklahoma and Texas (each 8-10 in league competition) secured at-large bids this season. In 2014 and 2015, Oklahoma State became the first school ever to receive an at-large berth in back-to-back campaigns after compiling a losing league record. Each of the previous 10 at-large teams in this category failed to reach the Sweet 16. Since numbers never lie, the cold and hard facts are that Virginia '84 is the only team with a sub-.500 conference mark to reach the Final Four. Three years later, Louisiana State became the last at-large team with a losing league mark to reach a regional final.

Maryland (#5 in 1986 and #4 in 2004) earned the two best seeds for an at-large squad with a losing conference record. North Carolina State '05 is the only school in this sub.-500 category in the previous 15 years to advance to the Sweet 16. In the same span, a total of 13 mid-major regular-season champions earning at-large bids reached the Sweet 16 or beyond. This striking number of at-large mid-level success stories doesn't even include recent Final Four clubs such as Virginia Commonwealth '11 (fourth-place finisher in Atlantic 10) and Wichita State '13 (second in Missouri Valley). How much more evidence does the committee require to give the Louisianas, Middle Tennessees, Old Dominions, Saint Mary's and Vermonts closer look rather than issuing handouts to underachieving members of power alliances?

Iowa State '92 is the only school receiving an at-large bid despite losing all of its conference road games. The Cyclones, dropping their seven Big Eight road contests by an average margin of 14.4 points, compiled the worst league mark (5-9) among at-large teams until Florida State '98 (6-10 in ACC with three losses by more than 20 points).

A breakdown of conference recipients of basically unwarranted at-large bids include the ACC (16), Big Ten (seven), Big Eight/Big 12 (nine), Big East (five), SEC (five) and Pacific-12 (two). After registering a 10-5 NCAA playoff mark from 1983 through 1987, teams in this suspect group went 24-39 since 1988 (ACC 12-14, Big East 1-4, Big Eight/Big 12 3-9, Big Ten 7-7, Pac-12 0-2, SEC 1-3). This year, five at-large teams joined the following list of underachieving power-league "losers" given preferential treatment over more worthy mid-major conference members: