March Madness: Who Got Snubbed This Year?

Every year, several teams are surprised and disgusted at the fact that they do not hear their names called on Selection Sunday, the day that the bracket is filled for the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Tournament, better known as March Madness. This year was no different as several teams across the country eagerly awaited their first round match-up only to find out they wouldn't be playing in the tournament this year.

While some of the teams left out did not deserve to be in the tournament, others have a solid argument as to why they should playing in March Madness.

The teams who had their bubbles burst after Selection Sunday were Syracuse, Kansas State, Air Force, Appalachian State, Drexel, West Virginia, Missouri State and Florida State.

Air Force, Appalachian State, Drexel and Missouri State have an argument based on the fact that this year's tournament only selected six teams from mid-major conferences for at-large bids. The number of mid-major at-large bids has decreased each year over the past few years. The tournament should take into consideration the success of George Mason last year, a mid-major team that went to the Final Four as an 11 seed.

Drexel, one of those mid-major teams, is probably the first team left out of the bracket this year. The Dragons were likely punished for their fourth-place finish in the Colonial Athletic Association. Drexel, however, showed their strongest in road games and games on neutral courts. A total of 14 of their wins were away from their home court. Three of their road wins were against Villanova, Creighton and Syracuse, two tournament teams and Syracuse who narrowly missed.

Syracuse finished their Big East regular season with 10 wins, a number that has been enough for Big East teams to get into the tournament in the past. Syracuse also finished the season hot, winning 6 of 8 games. The Orange were likely left out of this year's tournament based on a weak record of 3-7 against teams in the Top 50 nationally.

Appalachian State proved to be another mid-major team that was likely omitted from March Madness due to the conference committee's bias towards teams from major conferences. The team won on the road against Virginia, Davidson, Wichita State, and VCU. They also beat Vanderbilt on a neutral court.

Air Force was a team essentially guaranteed a spot in March Madness if the season had ended in the middle of February. The Falcons choked down the stretch, losing their last four games, and ending their chance at playing in the tournament.

Florida State had big wins at Duke and against Florida. Unfortunately for the Seminoles, the team went 5-12 against teams in the Top 50 nationally, which spelled N-I-T for Florida State.

Kansas State is the first team to ever have 20 or more wins, 10 or more wins in a major conference and finish fourth or better in that conference to not get into the tournament. The Wildcats likely missed out March Madness this year due to their weak non-conference schedule.

Missouri State and West Virginia are two teams who just flat out needed to do more to get into this year's tournament. Both teams had decent years, but neither team really deserved to get in. Missouri State beat weak teams they played but did not have any signature victories against good teams. West Virginia's only big win came against UCLA at home as the Mountaineers struggled against other strong teams all season.