The official bracket for the 2025 men's NCAA tournament has officially been released, and as is often the case, the March Madness field comes with some real controversy.
North Carolina, one of the sport's biggest brands, fell well short of expectations. While the Tar Heels were 22–13 overall, they didn't have many résumé-building wins, finishing 1–12 in Quad 1 games. Even so, they are in the Big Dance as the final team in the field, earning a No. 11 seed in the First Four, where they will face San Diego State.
Plenty of other teams would love to be playing on Tuesday night in Dayton, and have strong arguments over a UNC team that failed to rise to the occasion just about every time they've faced another tournament-quality team.
These four teams have legitimate gripes after being snubbed from playing in the NCAA tournament this season:
Boise State Broncos
There was only one true March Madness bid-stealer in this year's tournament: Colorado State. The Rams' biggest victim this year has been the Broncos. Boise State went 0–3 against the Rams this season, including a 69–56 loss in Saturday's Mountain West championship game.
Ultimately, the Broncos can blame themselves for losing the conference title game, but they played well enough to be included in the regular season, finishing second in a strong Mountain West with a 4–4 record against the league's non-CSU tournament teams, including conference tournament wins over New Mexico and San Diego State—the second-to-last team in the field. That Mountain West tournament run could have helped bump the Broncos into the field, but it doesn't appear that the committee weighed it heavily enough for coach Leon Rice's squad.
Boise State's résumé wasn't solely predicated on MWC play. The Broncos also earned solid non-conference wins over Clemson and Saint Mary's, No. 5 and No. 7 seeds in the tournament, respectively.
Indiana Hoosiers
A topsy-turvy year for the Hoosiers nearly ended with a successful late push for the Big Dance, but Mike Woodson's tenure is set to end with his program as second team out of the 2025 bracket.
Indiana put itself in a major hole during a run from Jan. 11 to Feb. 8 in which it lost seven of eight games—all in Big Ten play—before rebounding to win five of its last eight. That strong finish included big wins against Michigan State and Purdue, both top-four seeds in the NCAA tournament. IU was weighed down by a 4–13 record in Quad 1 games, but that is still better than UNC's mark. The Hoosiers held serve in all other games, with a 15–0 record in Quad 2, 3 and 4 contests.
Indiana may not have been the flashiest team, but it improved as the year went along and went toe-to-toe with some of the Big Ten's heavy hitters down the stretch.
West Virginia Mountaineers
There was no more surprising snub in this year's NCAA tournament than West Virginia. Even after an early Big 12 tournament exit, Mountaineers fans checking in on their program's chances entering the Selection Sunday show had to feel pretty good about their chances. Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney projected WVU as one of the "last four byes," well clear of the bubble cut line, as did ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
The selection committee's reasoning was... interesting, to say the least. Among the factors cited by committee chair (and UNC athletic director) Bubba Cunningham, the absence of senior guard Tucker DeVries played a part in West Virginia missing the field, though DeVries has been out since early December and only played in eight games for the Mountaineers.
Even without DeVries, WVU has been rock-solid against the nation's top teams, posting a 10–13 record against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, and a perfect 9–0 record against teams in the bottom two quadrants. Along the way, the Mountaineers beat Arizona and Gonzaga in neutral-site games, won at Kansas and beat Iowa State at home.
UC Irvine Anteaters
UC Irvine's absence from the NCAA tournament is no real surprise. After its conference title game loss to UC San Diego, the Big West champion and a 12-seed in the Big Dance, the Anteaters' hopes were largely dashed. That became official with the bracket's release.
Mid- and low-major teams that doesn't have the reputations of programs like Gonzaga have a hard time making field even if they flirt with 30 wins. These are the kinds of teams that often make noise as 13- or 14-seeds, and certainly offer more exciting possibilities than power conference also-rans.
Irvine had more wins than any other non-tournament team, a top 20 defense per KenPom, and were excellent away from home, with an 18–4 record in road and neutral site contests.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Four Biggest March Madness Snubs From the Men's NCAA Tournament.
