Miami (Ohio) was the final team in the 2026 NCAA Tournament field revealed Sunday night, but the RedHawks have work to do before advancing to the 64-team bracket.
Miami (Ohio) is a No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region and the last team in the field but must defeat SMU in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of that game advances to Philadelphia for a first-round game against No. 6 seed Tennessee.
The Mid-American Conference regular-season champions won 31 consecutive games to start the season before an upset loss in the conference tournament quarterfinals last week. Akron became the three-time defending champions by claiming the MAC title, which cast doubt on whether the NCAA Tournament selection committee would grant the league two bids.
In an interview with CBS Sports on Sunday, committee chair Keith Gill claimed that Miami (Ohio) was not the last team in the field in the committee’s initial selection process.
“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.”
This is the first time since 1999 the selection committee has granted the MAC an at-large bid. The conference tournament champion receives the automatic bid.
The RedHawks made the field with a NET rating of 64 over Oklahoma (38) and Auburn (44). Auburn had wins over Florida, St. John’s and Arkansas but wasn’t one of the 10 SEC teams awarded a bid.
