The Miami University RedHawks claimed the final position in the 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket announced Sunday evening, though they face an additional hurdle before joining the main tournament field.
Earning an 11th seed in the Midwest Region, the RedHawks must first overcome SMU in a First Four matchup in Dayton, Ohio. The victorious squad will then travel to Philadelphia to face sixth-seeded Tennessee in the opening round.
The RedHawks dominated early in the season as Mid-American Conference regular-season champions, stringing together 31 straight victories before suffering a shocking defeat in their conference tournament quarterfinals. Akron captured the MAC championship for the third consecutive year, raising questions about whether the selection committee would award the conference multiple tournament berths.
During a CBS Sports interview Sunday, selection committee chairman Keith Gill revealed that Miami wasn’t actually the final team considered during the initial selection deliberations.
“They came in before NC State, Texas and SMU,” Gill said, “and when we did our scrubbing process, those teams scrubbed above them relative to the predictive metrics and also the difference in the quality of the wins, so they scrubbed up above them. And with regards to VCU, (the RedHawks) would not have been in the field if (VCU) had not won the Atlantic 10 automatic qualifier.”
The selection marks a historic moment for the MAC, as this represents the first at-large tournament invitation extended to the conference since 1999. Typically, only the conference tournament winner receives an automatic qualification.
Miami earned their tournament spot despite holding a NET rating of 64, which ranked below both Oklahoma at 38 and Auburn at 44. Auburn boasted victories against Florida, St. John’s and Arkansas but failed to secure one of the 10 Southeastern Conference bids awarded this year.
