NCAA explains why Southern Miss left behind 5 SEC schools for coveted top-8 seed
Southern Miss made a strong case for a national top-eight seed, but ultimately must accept a program-best ninth-overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Baseburg Regional falls just outside a coveted spot that would have landed a home Super Regional if all hosts were to win their regionals.
The Golden Eagles were in strong position for a top-eight seed after tying four-seed Auburn for the most wins against Quad 1 and 2 opponents in the country with 26, and finishing 12th in RPI.
It solidified its resume by stacking a Sun Belt tournament championship on top of its regular season title.
But according to selection committee chairman and Florida State athletic director Michael Alford, those championships were the reason USM was even seeded as high as it was.
“We actually rewarded Southern Miss for winning the conference title,” Alford said in a media call. “Championships matter. Trophies matter. They actually got the nine seed because of that run. We were watching for them to come back and win two games on a single day. We thought that we needed to reward them. They actually jumped Florida State with that title.”
Florida State was the one top-eight RPI team to be left without a top-eight national seed.
That top contenders for the vacated spot would have been the teams ranked 9th through 12th in RPI: USC, Nebraska, Florida and USM.
USC won just one Quad 1 game in 12 tries and Nebraska finished 43rd in strength of schedule with only 17 wins against Q 1/2 opponents.
Florida was 4th in strength of schedule compared to USM at No. 35 and won 16 Quad 1 games compared to USM’s nine as well as 23 total Quad 1 games.
Alford harped repeatedly on the importance the committee placed on strength of schedule when determining the make-up of the field.
That particular metric is what led to a 46-win conference champion Jacksonville State team falling to a three-seed and being placed in Hattiesburg.
“They were one of our highest three seeds,” Alford said of the Gamecocks. “They were right there on the cusp of being a two, and it just fell where it fell when you scrubbed them and looked at some of their results compared to others.”
Strength of schedule is also a key reason the Sun Belt placed a record five teams in the field of 64.
Troy and Texas State were squarely on the bubble and were two of the committee’s last four teams in over a 44-win Mercer team that finished ranked seven spots higher in RPI than Troy and 15 spots higher than Texas State.
The Trojans, in particular, were sixth in the country in strength of schedule and first in non-conference strength of schedule.
“Troy kind of got our message,” Alford said. “They did not get into the tournament last year for the same reason and this year they had a very strong out-of-conference strength of schedule and won some of those games, a lot of those games. That was something we’ve emphasized for the last few years, going and scheduling aggressively.”
Joining USM, Troy and Texas St. in the tournament is Coastal Carolina and Louisiana.
Southern Miss’ regional will feature OVC champion Little Rock as the four-seed and second-seed Virginia.
