Biggest question for the March Madness bracket is whether Miami (Ohio), at 31-1, will be included

All the metrics, analytics and number crunching in the world cannot erase the most important statistic attached to the team that has captured college basketball’s imagination and its curiosity leading into March Madness.

Miami of Ohio’s record is 31-1. The Redhawks were the first college basketball team in five years to enter their conference tournament with an undefeated record.

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Virtually everything else about the regular-season champions of the Mid-American Conference — their 339th-ranked schedule, their zero top-caliber (Quad 1) matchups, their ugly (and only) loss to a not-very-good UMass team — screams NIT or maybe no postseason bid at all.

And yet, leaving this mid-major darling out of March Madness when the brackets are revealed Sunday night would feel, to many, like a crime.

The fact that a team that started the season 31-0 isn’t sure whether it will make the tournament and stands to be this season’s version of a lovable underdog if it does speaks volumes about exactly why March Madness is unlike any other event in sports.

Unveiling the 68-team bracket is step one on the road to the Final Four, set for April 4-6 in Indianapolis. There will be four First Four games played Tuesday and Wednesday before action gets underway in earnest with first-round games Thursday and Friday.

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A few nuggets to look for when the brackets come out:

Top seeding seems like an easy call

Houston and UConn had chances to make this interesting, but they lost their conference title games and are pegged as No. 2 seeds in virtually every mock bracket out there.

That leaves Duke, which won its 24th ACC title on Saturday, as the likely overall No. 1 seed. Michigan, Arizona and defending champion Florida are expected to join the Blue Devils as No. 1s. The Gators lost to Vanderbilt in the SEC semifinals, but nobody made a compelling case to replace them there.

SEC comes into Sunday with four teams on the bubble

Last season, the SEC set a record by placing 14 of its 16 teams in…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/biggest-march-madness-bracket-whether-160837325.html

Author : EDDIE PELLS

Publish date : 2026-03-15 16:08:00

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