{"id":773682,"date":"2026-02-24T17:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/773682\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:22:23","slug":"undefeated-miami-oh-could-still-miss-the-ncaa-mens-basketball-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/773682\/","title":{"rendered":"Undefeated Miami (OH) could still miss the NCAA men’s basketball tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz explain how a currently undefeated Miami (Ohio) men\u2019s basketball team could still miss the 2026 NCAA tournament. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube<\/a> or YahooSports.TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Video Transcript<\/p>\n

Miami of Ohio is 27 and 0 this year, okay?<\/p>\n

They are undefeated, right?<\/p>\n

But they are not a lock to go dancing, because even though they are undefeated, and even though they’re number 21, they are one of those schools that’s in a situation, Caroline, where a faulty conference tournament could end up with Miami of Ohio on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

So this is part of the reason people look at these things and say, “Well, we’ve gotta protect a way to, to make sure that Miami, the Miami of Ohio’s get in.”<\/p>\n

I, I’ve long since said this: I think the conference tournaments in college basketball, for smaller, mid-major conferences, I think they are a bad thing, not a good thing.<\/p>\n

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I understand the revenue that they generate, that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, I think small conferences need to put their best foot forward every single time.<\/p>\n

As you know, and we’ve talked about, I lived in Nashville for a very long time.<\/p>\n

I was friends for a very long time with the former head coach of Belmont Men’s Basketball.<\/p>\n

I watched that team every year just get puckered up in the conference tournament, because while they were clearly the most dominant team in their mid-major, if they don’t win their conference tournament, they ain’t going to the thing.<\/p>\n

That’s bad for the conference, because the far- the better you send a team, the better chance you have of winning a game that’s actually good for these mid-majors.<\/p>\n

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So look, I, I, I get all of this controversy around Miami of Ohio right now.<\/p>\n

We are looking at just the, the might could, the if come, of, “Oh, it doesn’t work out, Miami of Ohio gets left out.”<\/p>\n

Let’s not get it twisted, that’s not why they’re looking at expansion, though.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I mean, i- if you I don’t think it’s fair to use Miami of Ohio as an ex- as an excuse or a reason to expand this thing.<\/p>\n

Let’s say Miami of Ohio does not win their conference tournament.<\/p>\n

Let’s say Miami of Ohio is missing out on the tournament altogether.<\/p>\n

I don’t think that’s an indictment on the process.<\/p>\n

Miami of Ohio has the 295th-ranked strength of schedule, and there’s gonna be different websites that show you different numbers, but they’re hovering right around 290 to, like, 305, of 321 teams nationally.<\/p>\n

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If you have the 295th-ranked strength of schedule, I have a really hard time feeling too bad for you.<\/p>\n

Because let’s look at some bubble teams.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech, right now, where things stand, is a bubble team.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech has the 28th-ranked strength of schedule.<\/p>\n

Ohio State, right now, where things stand, is a bubble team.<\/p>\n

Ohio State has the 31st-ranked strength of schedule.<\/p>\n

The committee is tasked I- it has a really, really difficult job.<\/p>\n

And I do feel for Miami of Ohio, I really do, because no big-time Power Four program is gonna wanna schedule Miami of Ohio, because they’re a really good mid-major.<\/p>\n

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Beating Mia- Miami of Ohio doesn’t really do much for your resume, and losing to Miami of Ohio could crush your resume, so nobody wants to even put themselves in that position.<\/p>\n

So I do feel for them in that right, but still, who you play and your strength of schedule has to matter.<\/p>\n

Close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz explain how a currently undefeated Miami (Ohio) men\u2019s basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[109731,7,109730,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-773682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-conference-tournament","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami-of-ohio","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116126767055957059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}