Put Dick Vitale down as someone that isn't buying Auburn's plea to get in the big dance.
The longtime ESPN college basketball commentator said that Auburn's poor finish to the season offset all the strong work the Tigers did in the first 15 games and that will ultimately be enough to leave them out of the tournament.
The Tigers @AuburnMBB were almost a sure lock to make @MarchMadnessMBB mid season but after a tough home loss to @AlabamaMBB they went into a big struggle & finished the season 17-16- had wins vs St John’s , Arkansas,NC State, Kentucky, Florida etc - but just too many losses.
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) March 12, 2026
Dickie V thought he had some to support him. He incorrectly pointed out in his earlier tweet that no team had ever received an at-large bid with 15 or more losses, but several teams have made the tournament with 15 losses. Vanderbilt made it with a 19-15 record in 2017, Florida did it with the same record in 2019 and last year Texas did it. All three teams, however, got through the first two rounds of the SEC tournament and were four games above .500 on Selection Sunday.
Auburn could not get out of the second round of the conference tournament and a 16th loss, Vitale believes, is one too many.
Dick Vitale isn't the only one that has Auburn out of the NCAA Tournament
Thursday could not have gone worse for Steven Pearl and the Tigers. The day started with UMass pulling an upset over previously undefeated Miami (Ohio( and likely stealing an extra bid for the Mid-American Conference. That bid might've had Auburn's name on it, at least Joe Lunardi thought so before the game against the Tennessee began.
Joe Lunardi: "[Miami (Ohio's)] loss bumps [Auburn], at least for now, to the top of the first four out. But Auburn can play its way back in with a win over Tennessee... The team they're gonna have to bump won't be Miami; I think they're safe. It's gonna be SMU, Texas, or VCU." pic.twitter.com/GZULJGAr5j
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2026
Facing a must-win game, Auburn watched a second-half lead go up in smoke behind a 20-0 run from the Vols. The Tigers were 3-9 in their final dozen games and late-season road losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State will not be looked at kindly when the selection committee meets over the weekend. However, as Pearl pointed out, there are some numbers in Auburn's favor.
"If we're going to look at six teams on the bubble right now, Texas, SMU, VCU, Miami Ohio, Missouri, New Mexico, we have more top-25 NET wins than everyone in that group but Missouri," Pearl said. "We have more top-50 wins than everyone in that group. We have two top-25 road neutral wins, more than everyone else on the bubble. We have more wins over the projected field than anyone else on the bubble."
For the sake of Auburn's postseason aspirations, let's hope the numbers don't lie.