Bursting Bubbles

Well here we go again.

If there is an award for the biggest snubs in the NCAA men's basketball tournament not only would Missouri State have won it far to many times, they might just have to re-name it in the programs honor.

This is the same program I covered in a variety of different journalism roles from 1994-2004 and one in which I still hold near and ear to my heart.

To this day Missouri State's 2006 campaign remains the biggest "snub" in tourney history, and the proof is in the numbers not just a impartial opinion.

It was in 2006 that then head-coach Barry Hinson's squad was left without an invite to the big dance after having an RPI of 21. In 1997 I had a front-row view on selection Sunday as coach Steve Alford's team was standing without a dance partner after finishing with 24 wins, back then a near record high number of wins without getting an invite. Hinson also had snubs in 2000 and 2007 when his teams reached RPIs of 34 and 37. This long list of snubs means Missouri State holds the honor of having 3 of the top 5 rated RPI teams to not make the NCAA tourney, enough to make a Bears fan sick.

Each one of these teams though had valid strikes against them as reasons for being snubbed. The degree to which those strikes should have mattered is another point. In 1997 the general consensus from selection committee members (of which I had interviewed one) and the bracket "experts" back then was that the team's strength of schedule was weak and the number of wins was somewhat watered down.

Mo State started scheduling better, didn't get as many wins in 2000 but had that killer RPI in which everyone knew they were going to get in only to be told, "no sorry, you didn't win enough." Some of the experts also said that year that Mo State's inability to win the conference title hurt their at-large chances.

So now here we sit, less than a week before selection Sunday. The 2011 version of Missouri State has won the regular season Missouri Valley Conference title, amassed a record of 25-8 and currently sits 42 in the RPI.

If the Bears are left again without a ticket to March Madness it might be the most drastic snub in the long-history of snubs for the program, and a low water mark for the Missouri Valley. It would mark the first time since 1992 that the conference regular season champ isn't in the tournament and the 4th year in a row and a far cry from the four that made it in 2006.

This isn't about who should be in or out (Big East gets 11 teams?), but the NCAA would do well to at least give consistent guidance to programs and coaches so they know what they have to do to get in. Let Cuonzo Martin know what he can do better next year (outside of course from winning the conference tournament and getting the automatic bid) to ensure his program isn't snubbed once again.

And if that answer is "win more games," then he knows. If it is "get a better schedule," then he knows. But you can't move the goalposts next year after you use one set of guidelines to pick your tournament field this year using a completely different set of standards.

Unless of course, your corrupt as all hell and just want to ensure the "right" kind of teams are "invited" to your dance. Can anyone else say "BCS."