No Fortune Below .500: OSU/OU 3rd & 4th At-Large Teams 4 Games Under

Ohio State and Oklahoma became the third and fourth schools receiving an at-large berth despite compiling a conference record four games below .500. 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 31 of the last 37 years, the selection committee awarded at least one at-large berth to a squad with a sub-.500 mark in a top-caliber league. If history holds form, it will be shown to have pretty much simply wasted everyone's time. Undisciplined St. John's promptly exhibited why the DI Committee exhibited madness letting the red-faced Red Storm anywhere close to the tourney; even if it was just flailing away at the First Four.

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. 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. Syracuse '18 is the only school in this sub.-500 category in the previous 14 tourneys 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 top-notch mid-majors a 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) and Ohio State '19 (8-12 in Big Ten) plus Oklahoma '19 (7-11 in Big 12).

A breakdown of conference recipients of basically unwarranted at-large bids include the ACC (16), Big Eight/Big 12 (10), Big Ten (nine), Big East (six), SEC (five) and Pacific-12 (two). After registering a 10-5 NCAA playoff mark from 1983 through 1987, teams in this suspect group went 27-43 since 1988 (ACC 12-14, Big East 1-5, Big Eight/Big 12 4-10, Big Ten 9-9, Pac-12 0-2, SEC 1-3). This year, four at-large teams joined the following list of underachieving power-league "losers" given preferential treatment over more worthy mid-major conference members: