The Auburn Tigers failed to make the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, being named one of the first four teams out, along with the Oklahoma Sooners, San Diego State Aztecs, and Indiana Hoosiers.
CBS Sports' Isaac Trotter is the last person who is shedding any tears, claiming that the Tigers did it to themselves after a 17-16 finish, which was punctuated by a 72-62 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers in the SEC Tournament's second round.
"The only reason this was even remotely close to a conversation was that the bubble was historically mushy this season. But Auburn, with its 16 losses, will not dance," Trotter prefaced before saying, "No team with 16 losses had ever earned an at-large bid, and that will stick for one more year at least. Ultimately, Auburn's 7-15 record in Quad 1 and 2 games was too much to overcome.
"Even with one of the most impressive wins of the season (at Florida), Auburn is on the outside looking in. It only has itself to blame after a disastrous 3-9 finish."
Steven Pearl is lucky he has the last name he does
Auburn went from making the tournament every season under Bruce Pearl from 2021 to 2025 to needing Bruce to go on national television as a CBS on-air analyst and beg the committee to let his son's underperforming team into the Big Dance.
Bruce is as knowledgeable as it gets. For years, he has accurately predicted how his own team's games would go, more often than he'd get it wrong, based on his attitude heading into the contest. Even now, he offers unbiased takes on the sport for the most part.
His blind spot is a big one, though. He's been going on T.V. and making his son look bad by being blatantly biased in everything he talks about involving the Tigers. Sure, the Miami (OH) Redhawks may not escape the First Four, but they were always more deserving than the Orange and Blue.
Bruce admitted his son got the job because of nepotism, and quite frankly, it's unlikely he'd be debasing himself with obnoxious takes on Auburn if it weren't for his son being in the head coaching seat.
Steven is lucky he has Pearl as a last name. Otherwise, there'd be more internal calls for AU to get someone in the seat who can reach the team's tournament standards that had been set for four years running.
We'll see how far Steven takes this gig. He only gets to credibly blame Keyshawn Hall for the program's failures once.