One of the biggest stories in my mind of this year’s tournament is the fact that 14 of the 16 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament. The SEC has certainly had a historic season this year, and there were so many great games from the conference.

That being said, I have to go on record that I wish the committee had not done that. I understand why they did based on all the statistics, but this is one of those cases where I feel like we are missing a key statistic.

Auburn, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee have kind of been in a league of their own. But I feel that their dominance has carried the rest of the SEC into the tournament by boosting their league’s statistics.

I hate the idea of 8-10 (or even worse 6-12) teams making the tournament. I get that those teams might have gone undefeated in the non-conference but they are struggling when it matters the most.

We saw Texas get out to a double digit lead against Xavier on Wednesday night just to throw the lead away. I was excited to see what Georgia might do – but they are down 18 in the second half to Gonzaga.

We still have Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and of course 6-12 Oklahoma to go. They certainly have the talent to win some games, but it makes me wonder what is the clear criteria for deserving. Mississippi State will even be considered the favorite against Baylor. But I hope we can relook at things if they all lose (I suspect at least one of them will come through and win).

I also understand that top teams like Louisville and Clemson can lose just as easily in the tournament. But wouldn’t we want to see a mid-major team like McNeese play in these games.

It simply sends the wrong message. There are certainly worthy mid-majors. You could even consider 10-10 Indiana or West Virginia. But right now we are saying that 9 seed Oklahoma going 6-12 in the SEC is better than 11 seed Xavier going 13-7 in the Big East (the conference with the two time defending national champion) and UC-Irvine who went 17-3 in the Big West is just wasting everyone’s time to talk about. Let that sink in for a second – totally get the competition level is different, but we think a team went 29-6 isn’t worth talking about and could not figure out how to win 6 games in the SEC with 9 of those games at home.

I am certainly not trying to say that UCI or Indiana or WV would do better – we just don’t know. But as Georgia loses by 25 to Gonzaga, it is pretty easy to question whether we would be better off giving someone else a chance. At the moment, it couldn’t be much worse. And if it couldn’t be much worse, shouldn’t we give the opportunity to the 29-6 team we know nothing about. They might not be better, but I do feel they are more deserving.