{"id":176245,"date":"2026-03-03T12:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176245\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:28:11","slug":"miami-oh-ad-accuses-bruce-pearl-of-bringing-auburn-bias-into-march-madness-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176245\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami (OH) AD accuses Bruce Pearl of bringing Auburn bias into March Madness debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting with a 29-0 record, Miami (OH)<\/a> is two games away from completing its regular season with a flawless record. However, former Auburn<\/a> head coach Bruce Pearl<\/a> believes the Redhawks must continue to win to deserve a spot in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

Last week, Pearl made waves when he argued that Miami (OH) doesn\u2019t deserve a spot in the NCAA Tournament if it doesn\u2019t win the MAC Tournament. On Monday, Miami (OH) athletic director David Sayler fired back at Pearl.<\/p>\n

\u201c@coachbrucepearl u are flat out wrong about @MiamiOH_BBall when u say we would finish last in the Big East. The disrespect is awful and u should not be near a TV studio covering this sport when u show your true colors!\u201d Sayler wrote<\/a> on X. \u201cEven slipped in a \u2018we\u2019 when talking about Auburn, nice work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami (OH) is the only remaining undefeated team in college basketball. Alas, it\u2019s worth noting the team is ranked No. 318 in ESPN\u2019s strength of schedule rankings<\/a>. Bruce Pearl pointed to the Redhawks\u2019 lackluster schedule while making his argument last week. <\/p>\n

\u201cMiami (Ohio), here\u2019s the deal,\u201d Pearl said<\/a> during a Big East college basketball studio show for TNT Sports. \u201cAre we selecting the 68 most deserving teams? Or are we going to select the 68 best teams?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami (Ohio) is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion. Because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country. And that\u2019s going to be a difficult choice for the committee to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, like Sayler, many fans claimed Pearl is biased because his son, Steven, is Auburn\u2019s head coach. With a 15-14 overall record and a 6-10 mark in conference play, Auburn is currently on the NCAA Tournament bubble.<\/p>\n

If Miami (OH) receives an at-large bid, it could take away a tournament spot from a hopeful Power Four team such as Auburn. Bruce Pearl reaffirmed his belief that Miami (OH) must win its conference tournament if it wants a ticket to The Big Dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to play your way in, or you\u2019re going to lose your way out,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cIt\u2019s just that simple with all these teams. \u2026 For the mid-majors and low-majors, it\u2019s all about the tournament, because they recognize, you know, it\u2019s only going to be a one-bid league. For the rest of the leagues, it\u2019s all about the grind of the regular-season championship, and I think that\u2019s what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting with a 29-0 record, Miami (OH) is two games away from completing its regular season with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[82747,123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-176245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-bruce-pearl","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}