Indiana State had March Madness bid stolen: 'Under normal circumstances... they would have been in.'
Indiana State had its bid to March Madness stolen.
The regular-season Missouri Valley Conference champions, Indiana State missed out on the NCAA tournament. The Sycamores were third among the first four out, and NCAA selection committee chairman Dr. Charles McClelland said five bids were stolen during the conference tournament season. One of those bids was ISU's.
"They had a magnificent season, they had great metrics," McClelland told CBS after the bracket reveal. "But when you start to look at their nonconference, and the games that they played outside of conference, that was something that we had to take a look at. Under normal circumstances with those additional bids, they would have been in... but when you start splitting hairs you have to look at something, you have to find something and that's ultimately why they were not in the field."
Since the NCAA began using the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) in 2018-19 as its primary ranking metric for the tournament, Indiana State (29th in the NET) is the highest-ranked team not to make the NCAA tournament. North Carolina State previously held that title after being left out of the field while being ranked 33rd in the NET in 2019.
Boise State (No. 27 in NET), Colorado (No. 25), Virginia (No. 54) and Colorado State (No. 36) were chosen as the last four teams in the tournament field over Indiana State.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana State basketball has March Madness bid stolen.
