NCAA wouldn’t dare put a 16-loss Auburn in March Madness. Would it?

Last year, on its way to the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and the program’s second Final Four appearance, Auburn became one of the most breathlessly discussed teams in men’s college basketball.

The Tigers’ star player, Johni Broome, was at the center of a season-long national player of the year debate with Duke’s Cooper Flagg. They had an exceptionally old roster, with five players in their rotation who were at least 21 years old, including one, 25-year-old Chad Baker-Mazara, who was old enough to run for a seat in Congress. At the head of the operation was coach Bruce Pearl, a man who, for all of his teams’ accomplishments, has been a subject of controversy for much of his career, going all the way back to his days as an assistant at Iowa in the late 1980s (you can Google “Bruce Pearl Deon Thomas”).

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And, to think, the 2025-26 edition of the Tigers may be even more polarizing.

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Even with Pearl enjoying retirement and his son, Steven, at the helm, Auburn has perhaps the most contentious resume for an at-large berth to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers have a power-conference pedigree, a talented roster and a handful of highly impressive wins, but they’re just 17-16 this season after falling 72-62 to Tennessee in the second round of the SEC tournament Thursday, March 12.

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The argument around their candidacy has only ramped up in recent weeks, as the elder Pearl, now working as an analyst for TNT and CBS Sports, has publicly belittled the at-large hopes of fellow bubble dweller Miami (Ohio), which went a perfect 31-0 in the regular season before losing to UMass in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament Thursday.

Its tournament case has touched on some of the rawest, most searing divides in college basketball — namely, whether the final at-large spots should go to middling power-conference…

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Publish date : 2026-03-12 23:59:00

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