Five biggest snubs from NCAA's Selection Sunday

Sixty-eight teams celebrated their admission to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. But the teams whose bubble popped will have to think about the shots they missed, the close games that slipped away and the metrics that sent them to the NIT instead of the Big Dance.

Here are five of the biggest snubs from the 2026 NCAA Tournament field.

1. Auburn (17-16)

The Auburn Tigers had some incredible wins this season. They defeated St. John's, the Big East champions, in November. Auburn soundly defeated SEC champs Arkansas in January, along with No. 1 seed Florida. They've beaten tournament teams Queens University, North Carolina State and Kentucky.

But they simply lost too many games. It may have been a different story if the Tigers had pulled out their one-point loss to Houston or their overtime loss to Georgia, or their two-point loss to Texas A&M. Being one game over .500 simply isn't enough to make it to March Madness as an at-large team.

2. Oklahoma (19-15)

Oklahoma is another team from a loaded SEC that just didn't win enough games. Three weeks ago, the Sooners looked like they had zero chance at making the tourney, but a six-game winning streak with wins over tournament teams Texas and Missouri kept their hopes alive. They might have made if they knocked off Arkansas in the SEC tournament quarterfinals, but losing nine straight SEC games in a row earlier may have sealed their fate.

3. San Diego State (22-11)

San Diego State had one of the country's better resumes, going 3-8 in Quad 1 games but an impressive 6-2 in Quad 2 games, with only one Quad 3 loss dragging them down. What hurt the Aztecs was their timing. They dropped four conference games in two weeks in late February, which seemed to hurt their perception for good.

Still, the Mountain West overall may have suffered from a glut of good-but-not-great teams. They beat up on each other. As the best of an unimpressive group behind conference champs Utah State, SDSU barely missed out, and likely would be in if it weren't for a double-OT loss to Troy early in the season.

4. Belmont (26-6)

The Belmont Bruins dominated the regular season in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. They started the season 26-4, with two of those initial losses coming in overtime and another by a single point.

But they dropped their final regular-season game to Illinois State, then suffered a blowout loss to Drake, 100-79, in the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament. It's tough to say if Belmont would have made it in without the automatic bid, but getting crushed by a 13-19 team in their last game made an at-large bid improbable.

5. New Mexico (23-10)

While the Indiana Hoosiers had a number of impressive wins, dropping six of their last seven games — including two to Northwestern — makes their omission from the tournament quite reasonable. Instead, we'll pick New Mexico, another victim of the selection committee's disdain for the Mountain West this season.

The Lobos logged wins over Santa Clara, VCU and San Diego State, but a one-point loss to Boise State and a four-point loss to Utah State really hurt their chances. Perhaps if they'd beaten San Diego State in the conference tournament, but BJ Davis hit a twisting layup for his second game-winning shot against the Lobos this year to leave New Mexico on the outside looking in.