Selection Sunday always brings drama, but the tension is even heavier for teams sitting just outside the NCAA tournament field. For some programs, the work is done and the fate is now in the hands of the selection committee.
A handful of teams entered Championship Week hoping to play their way into the bracket. Others stumbled at the worst possible moment, leaving their resume incomplete and their tournament dreams uncertain. With automatic bids shrinking the number of available at-large spots, several programs could find themselves painfully close but ultimately on the outside looking in.
Here are a few of the teams most likely to be left out when the bracket is revealed.
Texas: A confusing resume that may fall short
Texas might have one of the strangest resumes on the bubble. On paper, the Longhorns have a strong case with six Quadrant 1 wins, more than several teams expected to safely make the field.
But their late-season collapse may prove fatal. Texas lost five of its final six games, including an early SEC tournament exit to Ole Miss. That slide left the Longhorns hovering around the cut line in most metrics.
The committee will have to decide which matters more: the quality wins or the ugly finish.
Auburn: Too many losses?
Auburn’s resume has flashes of tournament quality, but the overall record may simply be too difficult to overlook.
Steven Pearl's squad finished with 16 losses after dropping nine of their final 12 games. While Auburn owns four Quadrant 1 wins and played one of the toughest schedules in the country, historically teams with that many losses rarely receive at-large bids.
The late-season collapse likely turned what once looked like a safe tournament team into one of the biggest question marks on the board.
Oklahoma: Late push might not be enough
Few teams surged harder late in the season than Oklahoma. The Sooners won eight of ten games down the stretch and added momentum with SEC tournament wins over South Carolina and Texas A&M.
But the resume still lacks depth compared to other bubble teams. Oklahoma finished with just four Quadrant 1 wins and still sits near the edge of the national resume rankings.
If the SEC receives fewer bids than projected, Porter Moser's squad could easily be squeezed out.
San Diego State: The Mountain West dilemma
San Diego State reached the Mountain West championship game but couldn’t finish the job against Utah State. Now the Aztecs must wait and see whether the conference gets multiple bids.
Their resume sits in the national top 40 range, which normally helps a bubble team. But a late-season slump that included four losses in six games left little margin for error.
If the committee limits the Mountain West to one or two teams, San Diego State could become one of the biggest Selection Sunday casualties.
The harsh reality of Selection Sunday is that strong teams are always left out. For programs like Texas, Auburn, Oklahoma and San Diego State, the next few hours could determine whether their season continues or ends with one of the most frustrating words in college basketball.
Snubbed.