Only 2 SEC schools don’t have participant in either men’s or women’s NCAA Tournaments
By Andrew Olson
Published:
March Madness has officially arrived. On Sunday, both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments revealed their full brackets. It was an exciting Selection Sunday for many SEC fanbases, but a pair of conference programs are absent from both tournaments.
The SEC has 10 teams in the men’s tournament and 10 teams in the women’s tournament. Texas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia are represented in both tournaments. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Auburn and Mississippi State are the only SEC programs that do not have a participant in either the men’s or women’s NCAA Tournament.
The Auburn men were one of the First Four Out of the Big Dance after going 17-16 overall. Bruce Pearl and Steven Pearl lobbied hard for the selection committee to value AU’s difficult schedule, but the Tigers ultimately found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble. The AU women’s team finished 15-17 overall, going 3-13 in SEC play.
Josh Hubbard could only do so much for the Mississippi State men’s team, as Chris Jans’ Bulldogs finished 13-19 overall. The MSU women’s team had a better season, going 18-13, but still missed the NCAA Tournament.
On the bright side, it’s baseball season, and both AU and MSU are currently ranked in the top 10 by D1Baseball.com.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
